Tangled up in Darkness
by Tzippi Meshugah
Summary: War changes people, in ways we never would have known. Old rivalries are put behind us as we forge new alliances. Students that were light are going dark, arch enemies are joining together and becoming friends. Full Summery inside.
1. Prologue

**_Title_**: Tangled up in Darkness

**_Author_**: Tzippi Meshugah

**_Summery_**: War changes people, in ways we never would have known. Old rivalries are put behind us as we forge new alliances. War is upon us now and Hogwarts is changing. Students that were light are going dark, arch enemies are joining together and becoming friends. Unimaginable sacrifices will be made and it all comes down to the final battle to determine who will be victorious and what the consequences of that victory will be. We are tangled up in darkness and we must escape before the light flickers out for good.

**_Disclaimer_**: I don't own any of the characters and I don't plan on making money off of this fic, I am writing it for my own pleasure as well as the pleasure of those who read it. This Disclaimer is for the whole story.

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Tangled up in Darkness

_Prologue

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In a time of war there will be casualties, in order to lessen their number we must push aside old rivalries and forge new alliances. Together we can do great things. Wonderful as this may look on paper, it does not seem to register itself in our minds as well as we would like. Old house rivalries still remain, even the petty ones that were made just because of what house we are in. Like Slytherin, the house of evil. The moment I walked in the doors of Hogwarts on the clear night of my first year, I was just like every other petrified student standing there waiting to be sorted. But as the hat uttered the name "Slytherin" I became different, an evil muggle hating pure blood. Those thoughts never even entered my mind as I was growing up, I was a half blood with a muggle mother, but the Slytherin crest branded on my robes meant that I was evil. They stereotype us, the other houses that is. The influential minorities that sprout from our house cause them to do so. The only reason many from our number follow those minorities is because we are pushed to it. The other houses shut us out. We are our own family and we stick together. When we are faced with the question of which side to be on, we still stick by them, even if we know in our hearts its wrong, the other students have scarred us and we wouldn't dare side with them and betray our extended family. In reality most Slytherin families are neutral, myself included, but I don't know exactly how many, because in attempt to keep the family from dividing and fighting, the topic of the war is taboo.

We are evil because they make us evil, and I only wish someone was kind enough to give me and my fellow wall flowers a chance to prove our worth. We are good people from kind families, and to think any crueler of s is preposterous. I fear though, if nobody acts soon, the ranks of Death eater might be growing to include many neutral families that could have gone good had they been given a chance. An era of choice is upon us, will you push us away into the darkness, or will you seek us out and bring us into the light? Darkness is like a double edged sword, it cuts both ways and we must stand strong and unite if we want to resist it. We are tangled up in darkness and it is slashing us to smidgens. We must escape the twisting dark and find the flickering light before it dies. The end is nearing; time is running short and the flame is about to die.

Millicent Bulstrode

a/n- I know it's really short, but it's only the Prologue, it's like an extended summery so to speak. It foreshadows the whole fic. Other chapters will be _much_ longer (this is only 1 page in word, my normal chapters are about 15) and it shouldn't take me so long to write because I have the whole story mapped out. Bear with me here and please review. I don't even care if you flame it, I want your honest opinion. Keep on the lookout for chapter 1, it should be out soon.


	2. Chapter 1

**_Title_**: Tangled up in Darkness

**_Author_**: Tzippi Meshugah

**_Summery_**: War changes people, in ways we never would have known. Old rivalries are put behind us as we forge new alliances. War is upon us now and Hogwarts is changing. Students that were light are going dark, arch enemies are joining together and becoming friends. Unimaginable sacrifices will be made and it all comes down to the final battle to determine who will be victorious and what the consequences of that victory will be. We are tangled up in darkness and we must escape before the light flickers out for good. Narrated by Millicent Bulstrode.

a/n Just a quick note, if my Italian is off, feel free to correct me it's only my first year taking it.

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Tangled up in Darkness

_Chapter 1

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Fire licked the sides of the cabin, Hermione could only stare as she watched the walls of her house blacken and crumble. Her parents were no doubt buried under the fiery rubble, and a girl with as much common sense as she would not head into the raging flames, an inevitable death. Besides, the dark mark hovered over the mess, hardly visible through the tower of smoke which clouded the midnight blue sky. The bag she had been holding fell limply to the ground as she sunk to her knees, tears forming in her eyes. An act as simple as buying milk had saved her from this fate. Why had she been so deserving? It was almost as if her parents had known their fate, but that was impossible. The voice in the back of her mind advised her to call for help, but she could not bring herself to move even an inch. Her family and memories were being incinerated before her eyes and there was nothing she could do to prevent it. Slowly her vision blurred and began to swim in dizzying circles. She felt herself slipping into unconsciousness but did not bother to fight it. The darkness overwhelmed her; she was too feeble to untangle herself and break free.

* * *

Emotions flooded her as the white room slowly spun into focus. She tried to push them away, black them out. Hermione tried to sink into her dreamless state once again, but her efforts were in vain. Succumbing to the unavoidable wakened state she found herself in, she cracked her eyes open. It took her a few moments to register where she was lying, but she finally came to the conclusion that it was the hospital wing at Hogwarts. Why she was there, was beyond her weak mind to figure out, so she waited for someone to notice that she was awake and brief her on the peculiar situation she found herself in. It did not take a genius to figure out that something was amiss, injured students were sent to St. Mungos or Muggle hospitals in their area over summer holiday. 

As if reading her thoughts, Dumbledore stepped into the room, a newspaper clutched in his wrinkled hand. His face was etched with worry. He forced a smile as he saw Hermione.

"Good to see you are awake, Poppy said you would be. You must be wondering why you are here…" came the cheery voice that always accompanied Dumbledore, no matter how dire the situation happened to be.

"Yes," she replied, quietly fingering the cold white sheet that enveloped her body.

Soundlessly he passed her the newspaper in his hand. She stared at him, unsure of what to do.

He gestured at a spot on the page. "I think you might find this interesting".

A gasp threatened to escape her as she read what was on the page. Under the Deaths column were three names, her parents and her own.

"I managed to find out from Snape that Voldemort was after your family. You were out of the house, by no coincidence; we've been trailing your family for months. Apparently, the Death Eaters could not be bothered to find you, so they called you dead and left it at that. We could not leave you in St. Mungos, of course. If Voldemort was to find out you are alive, he would not stop hunting you until you died."

Hermione stared, open mouthed at him. Half of her wanted to react like Harry: screaming crying, hating, yet the more sensible side was telling her to be calm. "Why didn't the men trailing me try to stop them?" she asked in a controlled voice. Hermione was shocked at how calm that sounded. It did not betray her confused state of mind in the slightest.

Dumbledore fingered his long gray beard for a minute before answering. "This may be hard to explain Hermione, and it is certainly not what you want to hear, but I feel I owe you an honest explanation."

He paused for a moment, "You as a witch and a potential Order of the Phoenix member once you graduate in June and we need to protect you. However, more of our people die every day and we could not spare enough for a fight, which would probably bring Voldemort to the scene of the battle. We did all we could to save you. Your parents willingly gave their lives up; you could have gone into hiding, but they refused." He explained the events leading up to the present moment, his voice stretched thin with pain.

Nodding her head silently, Hermione reached over and touched the old man's shoulder in a reassuring manner. "You did the right thing," she insisted.

"You have to decide what you want to do for the rest of the holiday. I'm telling you now so you can think about it. You can spend the rest of the summer here, I'm sure Harry and Ron would like to keep you company…or I can send you on a mission."

"What kind of mission?"

* * *

Venice is a lovely city, though it has been modernized considerably since my ancestors walked the same narrow passage ways, the ancient magic still flows strong through the stones of the buildings. Everything about Venice seems to be alive with magic, whether it was Muggle-made or not, the effect is there. I adore coming to Casa Bulstrode for summer holiday. It makes me feel so lively and free, as if nothing terrible could ever happen. And if it did, I would not care, because the city of wonder would lull me back to my dreamlike happiness. The very idea of Venice seems absurd, a city built on hundreds of thousands of pilings, it seems to float majestically in a lagoon. It is populated by a people who, if they had done nothing more than build this amazing city, would be renowned for their ingenuity. As I stroll through the streets I feel the presence of the illustrious nation that built this marvelous city. If while living here, I could be completely cut off from the real magical community, it would be like a trip to heaven. Though the war has not yet reached my serene hideaway, I am still connected to it, whether I like it or not. The Daily Prophet is dropped at my doorstep every morning, bearing news of the war that the Venetians can peacefully overlook. I like to pretend I'm one of the ignorant Venetians, I don't read it. 

Blaise Zabini, the other Hogwarts Venetian, was the first to notice the shocking news. He flipped through the paper that fateful morning, humming joyfully to himself as we waited for Natter to serve breakfast. As his dark eyes scanned the page, his humming stopped and his expression turned to stone.

"There was another attack," he said solemnly.

"Why does that take you by surprise? There are attacks every night," I pointed out, refusing to let the news spoil my day. I was an ignorant Venetian, no bad news for me.

"This time it was someone we know."

"Who?"

"Granger." He tossed me the paper. I pushed it aside, daring myself not to look.

"We should be happy then. The bloody know-it-all bitch is dead," I pointed out trying to sound cheerful about it, but I could feel my face turning to stone as I spoke, and the ambiance of the room turning icy.

"It's not so much the person who died that's bothering me, its that here in Venice we're so cut off from the war. Now someone from school has died, and all of a sudden the war has popped back up in my face taunting me, telling me that there's no way to escape it."

"I know" I said softly, stroking his black curls. Blaise only had to look in my eyes to see the effect this was having on me, because although I was in denial, it didn't fool him. We have a strange connection, he and I. I never fully understood it, yet it has always been with us.

"Lets not dwell on this all day, it's only Granger; although I don't wish her dead, being given the chance to speak up in class might be a good thing," I said after a few moments of silence.

"I'll go get changed. Maybe we can walk down to _Piazza San Marco_, or take a gondola ride." As Blaise opened the door, we were greeted by a gust of warm air, the pristine city glistened in the early morning sun, still damp from the pervious night's rainfall. I inhaled deeply, enjoying the feel of the warm sun on my face. It warmed me thoroughly. I felt like I was coming out into the sun from being in a mausoleum after dark. Blaise looked at the tranquil affable expression on my face and grinned.

"Or we can do both," he added as he crossed the street to Casa Zabini, the grand house across the street from mine.

I headed back inside to change to muggle clothes, rustling my little brother's hair as I passed him on the stairs. He wiggled out from under me but I didn't call attention to it. Today was going to be a fantastic day.

* * *

Hermione grabbed the portkey and flinched as she felt the familiar jerk behind her navel. After checking to make sure her luggage was still with her, she consulted the map she held in her hand. From the appearance of the stone passageways, she was in the right spot. A short, portly man with graying hair and a goatee approached her. 

"I'm willing to break myself," he said, tipping his hat.

"To shake this hell from everything I touch" She replied rolling her eyes at the stupidity of the muggle song. Why Dumbledore had selected this one out of everything he could think of, was beyond her.

"I shall be escorting you to your destination," he replied, picking up one of her bags and walking of the narrow street into a lively square. Hermione followed, drinking in the delightful view while she followed the man as he waddled through the crowd.

* * *

Somehow, when I woke up the next morning, I knew that the fun and merriment of the previous day was short-lived. A foreboding air filled the house. Blaise felt it too, even though he denied it consistently. He sat perched on the edge of my bed in silence as I lay curled up under the covers, unable to will myself to get out and face the dreary morning. The day was no less picturesque than the previous day, but to my eyes it was blurred and dulled. 

"Do you want to do something today?" he asked, fidgeting. I could tell he was restless, yet I was too drained to care.

"Mmm," was my bleak reply.

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"Mmm."

"Come on Millie," he groaned as he began to pace around my wooden floors.

"You'll wear them out that way," I said meekly. He gave me a strange look, but said nothing.

The shrill piercing ring of the doorbell broke the silence that enveloped the room. Blaise leapt several feet into the air. Smirking, I climbed out of my bed and dragged my feet down the stairs. Natter was sick, the poor elf, and my parents were most likely out.

Drearily I opened the door. As I saw who was standing there, my jaw dropped. Quickly I slammed the door and began to breathe heavily.

"Am I hallucinating?" I whispered frantically to Blaise.

"If you are I'm having the same hallucination," he whispered back.

Slowly I opened the door again.

"_Eciò casa Bulstrode?_" Is this the Bulstrode House?

"_Sì,"_ I replied nervously. Yes.

"Well, may I come in?" she asked me switching to English.

"Are you a ghost?" Came Blaise's voice from behind me. I shot him a look which clearly said, _What are you stupid or something?_ Blaise took the hint and shut up.

"Do I look transparent to you? I don't mean to be rude, but can we continue this awkward little pow-wow inside, please? My guide has to leave." I then noticed the portly man who was standing behind her. Between her baggage, height and bushy hair, he was hidden behind her.

I sighed. "Come in." It came out in a whiny voice, but aside from being shocked to see her, a dead girl standing on my doorstep looking very much alive, it was also one of my sworn enemies who never, in my wildest nightmares, would I expect to see invading my hideout. She stereotyped me, the cruel, cold-hearted little freak; even back in second year, before she knew of the inner workings of the Magical world, she had assumed I was evil. When we were paired up in dueling club, we took the meaning of sparring to a whole new level. We verbally sparred. I took as much verbal abuse as I could bear, and dished out plenty of my own, before I gave up and head locked her. We had not encountered each other since, but her words cut me as I came to realize the consequences of being a Slytherin. The wounds she created have still not healed, and they will scar me for life. It's shocking how much power a twelve-year-old can have over someone. I brushed away the painful memory and turned to face her.

"If you saw the Daily Prophet, I have two options. Either I can trust you to keep quiet, or I can modify your memory. And yes, I have special permission to use magic over this vacation, if I feel it's necessary. So what will it be?" She twirled her wand like it was a baton.

"Let's see, have my memory erased, keep quiet, have my memory erased, keep quiet…"

"I'll go with having my memory erased, as long as you can erase my knowledge of your existence from it," Blaise spat angrily at her.

"Oh, for crying out loud, Blaise. Just keep your mouth shut, it won't kill you."

"If I don't die of shock first, it may," he said, still staring at her in disbelief.

"Well then, I was ordered to be killed by Voldemort." She paused as both I and Blaise flinched at the name. I never quite understood how people can say the name; they think it shows nobility and bravery if they can do it without wincing, but what about those who don't need to boast about their bravery, and who don't need to vie for the title of _non flincher_? Yet they insist on saying the name every time, which bothers me to no end. It's rude, inconsiderate and all it shows is that they are so pathetic that in order to prove their worth they have sunk to the pathetic level of saying the names of mass murderers that threatened the world. "However, the Death Eaters he sent could not find me, so they listed me as dead to avoid being killed and left. If word gets out that I'm still alive I will be killed in an instant, so I'm spending the summer here."

"What's the fastest way to get in touch with a death eater?" Blaise whispered to me. I ignored his comment.

"Joy to the world. I think I'm going to take a vacation as far away from here as I can go," I said sarcastically, heading back to bed and hoping that this was God's way of torturing me with cruel and unusual nightmares.

"Count me in," Blaise said, following me.

"And where is my room?"

"Go find a nice soft spot in the yard and lie down. Have a nice summer."

"That is no way to treat a guest, Millicent!" my mother's reprimanding voice shot.

"_Merda," _I muttered and turned around.

"C_iao, Mamma._" Hi mom

"Take her up to the guest room, Sergio," she said to my little brother.

"_Sì,_ _Mamma,_" he said, scampering off as he gestured at her to follow him. After shooting me a vile look of pure hatred, she followed him.

"Why didn't you tell me **she** was coming?" I spat out her name as if it was venom.

"Because _cara,_ I knew you would not like her; Dumbledore told me, and I did not want a fight. Once I agreed to keep her here I knew there was nothing we could do about it." dear, sweetie, something like that

"Fine, but I'm not talking to her, I'm going to pretend like she's not here."

"You will do no such thing. Get to know her, I've been told she is a lovely person."

"Well, you heard wrong, mamma," I said before storming up to my room, Blaise following at my heels.

"We should try to get to know her, maybe she has changed." He didn't sound very convinced.

"And I'm a pink flying monkey."

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a/n: Feel free to correct my Italian, I just started learning it so it's most likely wrong. I look forward to reading reviews, constructive criticism is appreciated. I will even accept flames if you feel it necessary. This Chapter is only 7 pages, still a bit shorter than normal, but I felt like this was a good place to end it. 

I'd like to thank my reviewers: chaste-aeon and TacsGurlJess who doubles as my Beta reader. Hugs and Chocolate Chip Cookies to both of you!

Next Chapter has some Harry, Ron etc in it… Keep an eye out for it, it should be out soon!


	3. Chapter 2

**_Title_**: Tangled up in Darkness

**_Author_**: Tzippi Meshugah

**_Summery_**: War changes people, in ways we never would have known. Old rivalries are put behind us as we forge new alliances. War is upon us now and Hogwarts is changing. Students that were light are going dark, arch enemies are joining together and becoming friends. Unimaginable sacrifices will be made and it all comes down to the final battle to determine who will be victorious and what the consequences of that victory will be. We are tangled up in darkness and we must escape before the light flickers out for good. Narrated by Millicent Bulstrode.

a/n Just a quick note, if my Italian is off, feel free to correct me it's only my first year taking it.

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Tangled up in Darkness

_Chapter2

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Listlessly Harry lay on his bed, the scene from the Department of Mysteries playing itself over and over in his head. Tears streamed down his cheeks hitting the damp pillow. It had been a year since the incident, and yet the pain it caused seemed to grow stronger with time. A sharp knock on the door chased away the incident from his mind. Shakily, Harry reached up and straightened his glasses and wiped away the remaining tears from his face. Lethargically he dragged his feet over to answer the knock. Ron stood in the doorway grinning widely. Had Harry been more awake, he would have noticed that his smile was painted on over a pain filled expression.

"Ready to go?" Ron asked, still wearing his painted on face.

"Sure," came the dull, mechanical reply. Ron entered the dark, stuffy bedroom, followed by several Aurors. Without a word they levitated Harry's trunk out of the room.

"Bright in here, isn't it?" Ron asked sarcastically in an attempt to break the awkward silence.

"Yeah," replied Harry, not picking up on the sarcastic edge to Ron's voice. Ron looked at his friend. He was a bit concerned; even last year he was not this withdrawn. Something was amiss and he was going to get to the bottom of it. Not to mention, Harry's room was dark and stuffy, as if it housed a dead body. One look at Harry confirmed his description. For all intensive purposes, Harry was a dead body. Disheveled, baggy clothes hung loosely over a pale bony frame. His expressionless face was white with huge black circles under bloodshot red eyes. The black taped up glasses were slightly askew and bent, while his messy black hair was messier than usual, as if no amount of combing could ever make it neat again.

"Let's go. The others are probably waiting," Ron coaxed, managing to get Harry to leave the dark room. The hallway light was blinding after coming out of the tomb Harry called his room. In the light Harry looked even worse than in the dark. Ron half expected to see the angel of death around the corner, waiting to take the last remaining spark of life out of Harry, not that he believed in angels or anything.

As they entered the Dursley's living room, they were met with a comical site. Vernon and Petunia were backed into a corner being lectured by Moody, who wore a frightening look of what could be considered enjoyment, had it not been so gruesome. Dudley, however, was not in the corner with them; he was bouncing around the room and off the walls on his bottom, which seemed to be transfigured into a giant ball. Mr. Weasley was scolding Fred and George while attempting to keep a straight face and Tonks was trying to hit Dudley with a spell to stop him, but he kept bouncing away.

"It will wear off in an hour; this is only the mild strength one!" protested George.

Taking advantage of his father lecturing George, Fred leaned over to Harry and Ron. "It's our latest product. If Tonks ever manages to hit him with the freezing spell, he'll start bouncing faster." Ron chuckled lightly, but Harry remained silent. Fred looked concernedly at him.

"Don't worry, we'll get you to the Burrow and Mum will fix you up in a flash" George whispered as his father left to go help Tonks after getting the trick to stopping Dudley from him. Harry merely stared blankly at the wall in front of him. Even the huge splintering crash of Dudley hitting the coffee table as Arthur and Tonks managed to stop him did not faze him, nor did the piercing shriek of Petunia as she ran over to her son to console him.

"Well, we really should be going. The others are in the car waiting," Arthur said, heading for the door. George steered Harry out behind him followed by Ron, who was staring at the ground, hoping that nobody would notice the tears dripping down his face. For the first moment in his life he was not looking forward to Hogwarts. One of his best friends was dead; the other was a zombie who no longer saw him. _Is there even a point in living anymore?_ He asked himself for the third time since the morning. The same voice always replied with the word _revenge._ But that was enough for Ron; he had to live to avenge the deaths of his friends. He had to make it through his final year of Hogwarts, no matter how difficult and lonely it would be, so that he could graduate and live the life that had been stolen from them. Filled with the dilution that followed that conclusion, he climbed into the ministry car next to Harry, wearing his painted-on smile.

As they traveled to the Burrow Ron tried to rouse his friend by chatting idly about light subjects. He managed to wheedle a few small, fleeting smiles from Harry, but nothing more. They had chosen the Burrow for their destination, as opposed to Grimmauld place. After seeing Harry's reaction to being in his godfather's house last year, Mrs. Weasley vowed to hex the next person to bring him there into obliviation. Upon seeing the fierce expression that she wore as she said that, nobody dared to go against her word. Mr. Weasley managed to privatize his fireplace and the one at Grimmauld place so that nobody would see who was traveling from one house to the other for meetings. Better yet, the only person who knew it was privatized was Dumbledore.

The dirt road that led up to the tumbledown hut became visible. Ron prepared himself to leap out of the car. Though Harry was his best friend, Ron didn't think he could bear another minute of sitting in a small car with a depressed robot. One look at his brothers told him that they agreed with him.

Mrs. Weasley ran out of the house to meet the cars. As she saw Harry who was being helped out of the car by Ron, she dropped the spoon she had been drying. Quickly it leapt back up into her hand.

"Harry dear, you look terrible!" she cried hurrying over to him. He did not reply to her. Quickly she shoved the towel and the spoon into Ginny's hands and steered Harry into the house.

"Does he know about Hermione?" Ginny whispered to Ron.

"Dumbledore stopped the Daily Prophet from sending him the paper because he thought it would be too stressful to him. When I saw him, I didn't have the heart to tell him. You saw him Ginny, he's a wreck and he doesn't even know yet!" Ron cried in exasperation before succumbing to the sobs that had threatened to escape him from the moment he laid eyes on his friend. Ginny rubbed his shoulder soothingly.

"Come, let's go back into the house and see what Mum is doing with Harry," Ginny cajoled.

Nodding his head, Ron followed her back into the house. As soon as he set foot in the doorway he was met with the comforting smell of freshly baked bread, a smell that had consoled him every time he was upset as a child. No matter how petty or significant the issue was, freshly baked bread was there for him.

Harry sat at the table moving food around his plate as Mrs. Weasley stood over him trying to persuade him to eat. With a sigh of frustration she picked up the fork and began to feed him. Robotically Harry opened his mouth for the food, but he did not taste anything more than ash on his tongue.

"George, please fix him up a dreamless sleep potion. I want him out for at least 24 hours, he needs his sleep," she said as she somehow managed to notice the twins entering the room, even though her back was to them.

"That woman has eyes in the back of her head, I'd bet money on it!" Fred cried as he helped George gather the ingredients for the potion.

Twenty minutes later Harry was fast asleep in Ron's room wearing a pair of Ron's old, worn, but comfortable pajamas. His breathing was labored but steady. Ron sat on his bed trying to read his Defense Against the Dark arts book, but he could not concentrate on it. Sighing he switched off the light and lay on his bed staring at the dark ceiling, wondering why his life had to be so full of pain. What had he done to deserve this? Maybe there really was such a thing as reincarnation, and he was suffering for something someone else had done in another life time. He rolled over and pushed the thought out of his mind as he drifted into a troubled sleep.

* * *

I sat staring out at the backyard; she was there again, sitting up in the clubhouse that had once been my hideout from my family when I was young. I almost felt sorry for the poor girl; she was reading an old Muggle novel, or at least she appeared to be. But the pages didn't seem to be turning, a sure sign that she was crying again. 

"Maybe we should give her another chance, she seems so upset. I can't help but feel bad for her," Blaise said, breaking the silence that shrouded us.

"You're a Slytherin, suck it up," I scolded.

"She might have changed; maybe she has seen the error of her ways and has returned to the light" He said in a Mystical voice.

"You sound too much like Daphne for comfort, but that aside, she's a Gryffindor, a member of the stubborn little golden trio. She can't change, it's against their nature"

"There you go; you're doing the exact thing you accuse her of doing to you, stereotyping."

I looked out at the girl again. She was pretty, I had to admit that, but her thick, bushy hair blocked her face and seemed to rob her of her beauty. She was skinny, not overly thin like Daphne, but certainly not big-boned like I am. I shook those thoughts from my head, I refused to compliment the girl who had been the first to admit her hate for me was based on the crest I wore on my robes. But yet, I didn't feel the same resentment to her as I had when she first showed up on my doorstep.

"I suppose we can see if she's changed, where is the harm in that?" I said, yielding to Blaise's request.

Hermione wiped away her tears as she saw Blaise and me heading out of the house. She had been crying over the loss of her parents, and the bitter hate we had for her, but she had also been monitoring us from the make-up mirror that she hid in her book. Though she refused to admit it to herself, she knew in her heart that we were no different from her. As we climbed up the rope ladder to the tree house, she slammed the book shut and pulled her knees to her chest. Wordlessly I sat down next to her, Blaise followed my lead. I don't know how long we sat there in silence before she broke down and began to sob.

Blaise shot me a look as if to say _"Should we comfort her?"_ I nodded. He began to rub her shoulder soothingly. She shrugged him off.

"I don't deserve your pity, not after what I did to you," she said slowly. "I was wrong about you. I don't understand how I could have been so cruel, even if I didn't say as much as I felt. Somehow, I thought I had to have a strong resentment for you because you were a Slytherin, and evil Slytherin. But I was wrong; you are no lower than anybody else. It's me who deserves to be the victim of so much hate for even thinking this about you. I've been watching you, and with everything I see, I hate myself even more for hating you." She began to sob again.

"We're just as guilty as you are. I hated you for being a Gryffindor as much as you hated me, even if I didn't admit it to myself I was just as wrong as you were," I found myself saying.

"In a way, we were all wrong," Blaise offered.

We both nodded. This was the beginning of a mutual respect. Although we were not yet friends, we were no longer enemies. In that one afternoon we broke down the stone wall of hate that separated Slytherins from Gryffindors. But the rubble still lay around our feet, and it would take a lot of work to pick up all the stones and become friends.

"We're going to _Vicolo Mago_ tomorrow; it's the Venice equivalent of Diagon Ally, although the name is not very creative. Would you care to join us? Our Hogwarts letters came yesterday," I offered.

"Sure," she agreed, nervously twisting a bushy lock of her hair around her finger.

"Great!" I cried with much more enthusiasm than I felt; I was still a bit uneasy around her.

"Well, there's no point in sitting out here all day! Let's go inside and see if Natter can fix us something," Blaise said, jumping down from the tree house. I never understood how he could do that without getting hurt.

"More stereotyping?" I asked as I saw Hermione's shocked expression as she laid eyes on Natter. She was clothed in a clean white pillow case fashioned like a toga around her thin green body. She blushed. "After meeting Dobby, I just assumed that all house elves were treated poorly."

"Your S.P.E.W. idea wasn't all that bad. After hearing about it from Draco, we tried to pay her to work, but it's an insult to them really. Your heart was in the right place, though, so I don't penalize you for it," I confessed, also blushing slightly.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Blaise tried to do the same thing for his house elf, even though he didn't even know its name. He practically lives here."

"I do not! Well, yes I do, but at least my heart was in the right place," he replied, sarcastically mocking me.

"Why, you little…!" I screamed throwing myself at him, knocking him to the ground

"Dog pile!" he croaked from under me. Hermione laughed, probably for the first time in days. She had a nice laugh. After a moment of hesitation she jumped on top of the pile. "I am queen of the dog pile!" she cried triumphantly before I knocked her to the ground, regaining my spot on the top.

"Welcome to my life," Blaise managed to declare. "I spend a lot of time being tackled by her. I don't do it on purpose; things just seem to come out wrong."

"Well, we should change that, shouldn't we? On the count of three, throw her off. Ready?"

"Yeah," he said, freeing his hands, which had been pinned at his side. I pretended not to hear their plan as I braced myself to be overthrown.

"One…two…three!" Their combined strength was too much for me and, despite my struggles; I was thrown to the ground.

"We are victorious!" he cried doing some sort of freaky interpretation of a victory dance. Hermione joined him. They looked so goofy; I couldn't help but join in myself, even though I was the loser of the struggle. As we laughed, I knew some of the rubble was being cleared away. If we kept this up, we might actually be friends before the end of vacation. That was a scary thought.

* * *

I was awakened the next morning by Blaise and Hermione throwing open the blue drapes that covered the huge window in my room. "Close that, it's barely morning," I growled as I threw the blankets over my head. 

"Not much of a morning person," Hermione commented.

"That would be the understatement of the century," Blaise said, chuckling.

"I'm right here, you know. I can hear you! Don't push your luck, Granger, we're not friends yet," I shot out coldly. As soon as the words left my mouth, though, I felt awful. "I'm sorry! I was upset about being woken up. Don't take anything I say before noon personally. Really. I'm sorry"

"She's right. She's said some pretty nasty things to me, and we've been friends since I was born."

Hermione nodded, but she didn't say anything. "Way to throw more stones on the ground," I muttered to myself in a barely audible tone, yet somehow Hermione managed to hear it.

"Pardon me?"

"Nothing. I was referring to something else. Well, I have to get dressed; I'll meet you downstairs in a few minutes," I said, ushering them out of my room. After carelessly throwing on a shirt and jeans and wetting my curly brown hair to tame the frizz, I bounded down the stairs. As I entered the foyer, I heard Blaise and Hermione laughing. I felt a pang of guilt as I remembered what I had just said to her. In saying that, I felt like I had somehow secluded myself from the friendship that was forming between the two of them.

"Hey," Hermione said warmly. More guilt rushed through me. Now she was acting like it never happened.

"Hey," I replied quietly, tracing a pattern in the carpet with the toe of my shoe as I spoke.

"This morning, never happened," she said lightly in response to my hesitant greeting. Smiling I looked up at her, a newfound respect for her forming. After all those years of using everything she could find as a reason to hate me, she was all of a sudden pushing everything away and pretending it never happened. I didn't think I could be nearly as carefree, I had a tendency to hold grudges; even forgiving her took a lot out of me.

"Shall we?" Blaise asked holding out his arms. We linked arms with him and headed for _Vicolo Mago,_ chatting casually as we walked through the ancient streets.

* * *

­­­ 

The sun shining through the window woke Harry from his sleep. He glanced at his watch, it was half past 4 in the afternoon. He sat up, wondering how he had managed to sleep that long. The room he found himself in looked familiar, but he could not place where it was. The last thing he remembered was Ron standing in his room, and now he was in this strange place. After inspecting it a bit more, he managed to conclude that it was Ron's room, though it had been redone since he had seen it last. The only thing that remained the same was the Chudley Cannons picture on the wall, with the players smiling brightly at him. Harry eased himself out of bed, cringing slightly as his bare foot met the cold ground.

Slowly, he headed down the stairs still lacking his normal energy. Ron grinned at him as he entered the kitchen. The black circles around his eyes had grown smaller, and his eyes were no longer bloodshot; however, the smile that was spread across his gaunt face was a tad creepy. Nevertheless, Ron was overjoyed to see that all hope was not lost for the well-being of his best friend. He felt his heart drop a few feet as he remembered that Harry did not yet know about Hermione.

"Is Hermione here yet?" Harry asked as he sat down at the table next to Ron. "Normally she would have thrown herself at me by now," he commented.

_Speak of the Devil,_ Ron thought to himself wondering why it was always the devil who was watching over him and not Lady Luck, metaphorically speaking, of course. He didn't really believe in any of that, or so he insisted on countless occasions.

"No," he replied simply, hoping that the answer would suffice and Harry would abandon the topic for the time being. However, Ron was never overly lucky, curse his guardian angel. This seemed to be no exception.

"When is she coming?"

"She's not," Ron said quickly, still trying to avoid telling Harry the truth. He wondered how long he would be able to stall before the truth was extracted from him.

"Why?"

"She can't make it."

"Really? What's she doing?"

At this point Ron realized that he could either lie or keep stalling, and tempting as lying would be, Harry would find out eventually. One look at Harry's face told him that he would never be able to pull it off. "Nothing," he said, not meeting Harry's gaze.

"Then why can't she make it? Did something happen to her?"

"Yes." Ron's answer left Harry so stunned he could not bring himself to ask the next question, but it had to be asked.

"Is she going to be alright?" he croaked. His throat felt like it was swelling shut and his head began to spin. Somehow he knew the answer to the question, even before Ron answered him.

"No, there was an attack, she's…" He could not bring himself to say the word, the realization had already hit him, and yet saying it out loud seemed like it would finalize her fate. "Dead," he whispered before breaking down into sobs again. Harry felt himself slipping into his zombie-like state from the previous day. The word seemed to linger in the air, choking him, forcing him to accept it at a reality. _D-e-a-d._ and it was entirely his fault. He could have killed Voldemort, had his hate been strong enough. Avada Kedavra did not work on anger alone, and love had failed him once again. _D-e-a-d._ The word seemed to swallow him up. He felt consciousness slipping away from him as he crumpled to the floor.

Vaguely he felt people kneeling around him. Someone was calling for help, but he could not make out who it was and who they were calling. In fact, he didn't even remember who he was. He surrendered to the darkness that was engulfing him; it was easier than facing the truth.

* * *

a/n: Please review my story. I need feedback, even if it's negative. I want to see what you honestly think. And any sudden mood changes are because of the music I was listening to; I tried the best I could to cover that up, but if you happen to notice them, that's why. And I don't mean when I'm talking about different characters, because then the mood is supposed to swing. I'm sorry it took me so long to upload this, blame my beta reader, even though I'm eternally greatful to her. Try not to be too harsh. 

Thank you to my reviewer chaste-aeon. In addition to the chocolate chip cookies, I shall give you the milk, and I will answer some of your questions because you are my only reviewer. I think this chapter answered at least one of your questions, and there will be romance; however, I'm not that great at writing romance, so it won't be very emphasized. Boy! Blaise rocks! I based him on my personality. Basically he's me if I was a boy.

I also would like to thank my beta reader. I'm eternally grateful to you, comma usage is not my strong point. Although, I would be much more grateful if you gave me your opinion on this fic, in addition to fixing my grammar. /obvious hinting


	4. Chapter 3

**_Title_**: Tangled up in Darkness

**_Author_**: Tzippi Meshugah

**_Summery_**: War changes people, in ways we never would have known. Old rivalries are put behind us as we forge new alliances. War is upon us now and Hogwarts is changing. Students that were light are going dark, arch enemies are joining together and becoming friends. Unimaginable sacrifices will be made and it all comes down to the final battle to determine who will be victorious and what the consequences of that victory will be. We are tangled up in darkness and we must escape before the light flickers out for good. Narrated by Millicent Bulstrode.

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* * *

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**Tangled up in Darkness**

_Chapter 3_

* * *

Rubble disappeared that summer and bonds that could not be broken began to form between Blaise, Hermione and I. She was an entirely different person, it astounded me that such a witty sarcastic individual could be hidden underneath the know-it- all exterior. She was also quite Slytherin like, sly, sneaky, observant and ambitious. Looking back on it now, it was astounding how we ever could have been enemies, we are too similar. Though, it has been said that the thing you hate about people is usually one of your characteristics. If that's the case, it is notionally possible. It seems so weird how it all started, like one of those story books that you read and say it's too surreal and would never happen and yet, things like that really do happen. People come to their senses, its human nature, and once one person has come to their senses it tends to rub off on the others. It was worth it. 

As the long summer passed us by in a huff and school drew nearer she began to worry, she called it thinking, but I saw in her face it was worry. What about, I had no idea, but she often could be found sitting in the tree house gazing out at the azure sky.

"If three months ago, someone would have told me that we would be friends with Hermione know-it-all Granger, I would have put them in an insane asylum, and told them to keep off the crack. I don't know what changed…" Blaise said to me one morning as we sat by the window watching her in the tree house.

I chuckled to myself and shook my head. "I can't believe it, nor do I understand it either. It's astounding that there is such a fine line between love and hate. Two months ago she was my worst enemy, now she's like a sister to me. We may have only been friends for a month, but she's such an easy person to get along with." I chuckled again. "I wonder what's bothering her though"

"Let's go find out" he said as he put three mugs onto a tray, followed by a pot of coffee, cream, and sugar. Carefully, he carried it outside and set it down in a shady spot under a tree. He then stuck his hand into the hole in the tree and pulled out the picnic blanket we had stuck down there so many years ago. It was still wrapped in the plastic bag that we had used to protect it. Though the bag was in worse shape than we had left it in, the blanket was unharmed. I grinned at the fond memories that the old blanked brought to my mind.

"Hermione!" he called, causing her to jump out of her daydream. "We have coffee if you want to come down!" He shouted once he was sure he had gotten her attention.

In a few moments she was on the ground with us, sipping hot black coffee.

"What's bothering you?" I asked.

"Nothing" she answered quickly.

"Don't give me that, I'm a Slytherin, not a fool. I'd have to be blind and stupid to believe that one"

"Knowing you, you'll get it out of me anyway so I might as well give in willingly." She smiled at me. "I don't even know where to start." She said setting down her mug.

"The beginning might be nice, that's generally where people start. Or, theoretically, you can start at the middle and backtrack but that tends to get annoying, so I wouldn't advise it." He said looking pointedly at me. I glared at him.

"I suppose I shall start from the beginning then. We're going back to school in a few days, but what's going to happen to us? I mean, you're Slytherins, and though you might be wonderful people others will beg to differ. Harry and Ron would kill you as soon as look at you, and I'm not so sure your friends would like me much either. Is this the end of our friendship? Because if it is, I'm not going back to school, I've been friends with you for a month, but you guys mean too much to me to just have to give up."

"Never!" I said defensively. "I mean, sure we have a bit of house rivalry but you're our friend now, besides, the whole 'Let's-hate-the-Slytherin' thing is getting a bit old. My friends would like you, and we'll work on yours."

"That's exactly what I thought, but then I realized something, and I know you realize it too, but I shall point it out anyway. We're in the middle of a war,"

"No kidding? I never knew…" Blaise said sarcastically.

"- and there is no such thing as neutral." Hermione continued trying to speak over him. "You will be sucked in before the end of it, and either way you'll be fighting against friends, can I really put you through that?"

"Who's to say it will come to that?" I asked, trying to brush away the issue like I had all summer. Ignorant Venetian, that should be my motto.

"Don't be daft Millie, you know it will come to that, and when the time comes, I will not fight based on where my friend's loyalties lie, I will do it based on my own. And my loyalties are against You- Know- Who. He has massacred too many innocent people. Even if I was not the friend of a Gryffindor I would fight him." Blaise said, his deep turquoise eyes flashing. Normally he was hard to read by anybody accept for me, but for the first time his emotions were quite visible on his face. He was obviously passionate about this. I didn't blame him, I knew what Voldemort, dare I pen his name, did to his family.

"I'm still undecided" I confessed, not meeting Hermione's gaze. "There are innocent people who will be fighting against you too, their loyalties are forged because all the other houses hate them, and they want their chance of revenge and would not dream of betraying the Slytherin family. Blaise may be the first Slytherin in a family of Ravenclaws, and my mother may be a muggle, but my father is from a long line of respected Slytherins, and my loyalties are to my family first. I hope he chooses wisely, but I fear he may be driven by the hate his house rivals held for him."

"That's why I'm here, to show him that some people really do care. Even I notice the change in his attitude toward me. But that aside, I then got to thinking about what the sorting hat said back in fifth year '_We must unite inside her,' _her being Hogwarts of course,_ 'or we'll crumble from within.' W_what if that was more than a warning, what if it was a prediction? " Hermione pointed out.

"The Sorting **Hat** is a **Hat**" Blaise said slowly as if he was talking to a three year old who was hard of hearing and had trouble understanding even the simplest words. "He may be able to think, but he is still a **Hat**"

"No way!" Hermione said stressing the surprise in her voice as if someone had just told her that Harry was dating Draco Malfoy. "All these years seeing it, and I never realized that it was a hat! Wow, I wish you had told me sooner, it would have saved me the embarrassment of feeding it bananas, I was so sure it was a monkey. Could you have been hallucinating by any chance?" I snorted. She somehow managed to keep a strait face.

"Ha ha Hermione, very funny"

"I know it was, wasn't it?"

"Hate to brake up this hysterical sarcastic fight, I'm really enjoying it, but can we get back on topic, I think Hermione was planning on going somewhere with this point." The two of them glared at me, but Hermione jumped back into her story from where she had left off.

"That's what I thought at first, _a hat giving predictions, yeah right_, but it's not just a hat, its Godric Gryffindor's hat, he poured his intelligence into the hat, so if he was a great seer, wouldn't the hat be able to make predictions?"

"That sounds a bit far-" I began but she cut me off. I could see the anticipation growing in her eyes.

"Far fetched, I know, but not completely." She paused for a moment. "I've never told anyone this, when I was sorted, first I almost made Ravenclaw…"

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Blaise asked sarcastically.

"Har har, you're really witty Zabini," She said sarcastically "I wasn't finished. You're developing a nasty habit of cutting me off and jumping to conclusions. It's very unbecoming. Then it decided Ravenclaw wasn't the right place for me. I quote the hat _"Slytherin would be the ideal house for you, you have ambition, and a Slytherin personality, it runs dominantly in your blood. However, Gryffindor is very similar to Slytherin in more ways than its members like to think. You will make friends with the Slytherins; no doubt that part of your fate is inevitable. You will be a very valuable asset when the time comes. Slytherin blood runs through your veins, but my mind is made up."_

"That is some memory you've got yourself" Blaise said enviously. "Are you sure that's accurate?"

She blushed. "Well you'd remember it too if it replayed itself in your mind over and over for seven years. And yes, I'm positive it's accurate, it's been haunting me for seven bloody years! That's why I hated your house so much, because after finding out how people stereotyped you I did not want to make the prediction come true and become friends with you because that would mean everything else it said was true also and if I had Slytherin blood, I must be evil. Oh how wrong the logic of an eleven year old can be."

"That is some theory you've got yourself Hermione. You might actually be right." I said considering everything she had just said. It was very implausible; however, strange things often happen. "So in short you're saying that you are really a Slytherin, and we are going to ally with you and unite Hogwarts?" I asked.

"Pretty much," she said with a shrug.

"Then why couldn't you just say that in the first place? We've been sitting here for quite a while." I said crossly, I think I was sitting on the root of a tree and that was none too comfortable.

"Because then you would have asked for more details and for my proof and I would have had to backtrack, and that gets pretty annoying." She said, mimicking Blaise's expression from earlier. I grumbled incoherently under my breath in Italian. She laughed. "I know what you're saying, colorful vocabulary you've got yourself." She pointed out.

We sat in silence for some time. "We should enjoy our last days here, how about we take Hermione to visit the islands?" Blaise said breaking the quiet which was beginning to turn into an awkward silence.

"That sounds great" She gushed, jumping to her feet, knocking over her mug in the process. It hit a stone and split down the middle. "Oops!" She said touching the mug. Instantly it was whole again.

"You can do wandless magic?" I asked astounded.

"Bigger oops. Not much, just basic low energy spells. Harry and Ron were so busy with Quiddich, and Harry being so hard to talk to in the first place and Ron talking to him in all his sane moments and them ignoring me except when it suited them, I needed something to do. So I asked Dumbledore to teach me. If I want to become a curse breaker for Gringotts and the Order, among other things, I need to learn it. I figured I'd make the best of a lonely situation. Dumbledore really is fascinating."

"The Golden Trio is breaking up" I said, and then it suddenly occurred to me, "Do Harry and Ron and the rest know you're still alive?"

"Only you, Madam Pomfrey and the inner circle of the Order" She said quietly. "That's another thing I'm worried about. Until I get to Hogwarts and am under the supervision of Dumbledore I have to stay invisible, but once they find out I'm still alive I don't know what they'll do, but it won't be pretty."

"We'll stick by you, maybe not while you're being given the third degree interrogation and being hugged to death, that might make matters worse, but you can find us afterwards and we can call them gits and come up with fun ways to kill them in their sleep" Blaise assured her.

"Come on, _Murano_ awaits us" I said dragging them into the house.

* * *

"I just got notice from Dumbledore; I'm taking an illegal portkey to Hogwarts a day early." Hermione said, holding up a piece of Parchment she had found on her bed when we returned from the islands. 

"Won't you be bored there?" Blaise asked.

"With an entire library all to myself for two days, are you kidding me?"

"Sure, we can go with that. Kidding you, sounds fun."

"He said that you may accompany me if you'd like, but your friends might worry if you don't show up on the train"

"No they won't. We usually take a portkey to Hogsmeade and meet up with the train. It is far too long a distance to floo safely, and if we're taking a portkey, after first year, getting to Kings Cross Station was no longer necessary" I pointed out.

"Why do you go to Hogwarts anyway?"

"There's no wizarding school in Venice and our ancestors chose to attend Hogwarts and once we became a Hogwarts family, we stuck with it."

"So, would you like to come with me then? You should be able to get to Hogsmeade to meet the train as usual so nobody suspects anything."

"Sure!" Blaise said, jumping up and down like an excited puppy.

"Well then I suggest you pack, we're leaving early tomorrow and it's already late" She advised, her familiar bossy tone returning for a brief moment. Old habits die hard. It amazes me how Muggles can come up with such annoying phrases. I think they must get them from Daphne Greengrass, she rarely speaks, but when she does it's in riddles and phrases similar to this. I've only heard her speak normally once, and even then it might have just been a dream. Which is very likely seeing as Draco Malfoy was wearing a magenta tutu and riding a flying pig across a green sky.

Hermione and Blaise woke me up way to early the next morning. Despite the sun shining through the window, my body was sure it was the middle of the night.

"We're leaving in five minutes!" Hermione cried exasperatedly. That got me awake in a flash.

"Five minutes! Why didn't you wake me up sooner!" Blaise made a sound that was a combination of a giggle and a snort.

"We've been trying for the past 40 minutes."

"Oh, well, out of my room, I have to get ready!"

An abrupt knock on the door was heard precisely five minutes after I had been woken up. "He sure is punctual," I muttered as I opened the heavy wooden door.

The same portly gray goateed man that had accompanied Hermione here two months before stood on the doorstep. Those two months felt like all eternity, but in reality they were not very long at all.

"_I hear sound echo in the emptiness,_" He said quietly.

"Pardon?"

"_I hear a sound echo in the emptiness,_" He repeated.

"_All around but you can't change this loneliness,"_ Hermione replied.

"Am I missing something here?" I asked, a bewildered expression crossing my face.

"It's the code from Dumbledore, he seems to have a fascination with using Muggle songs," She said. The man nodded in agreement, whipped out his wand and proceeded to shrink our trunks down to pocket size.

"Hide them and stay close to me," He said in a gruff voice. We filed out of my house quietly and followed him. He led us through the rich part of _Castello_ and into the poor part. Crumbling stone buildings surrounded us as we followed him through the narrow pathways. Finally we stopped in front of an abandoned theater whose name escapes me now.

"Wands out and stick close to me," He whispered.

Blaise and I exchanged nervous looks but took out our wands and followed him into the tumbledown building. The floor was coated with dust, the seats in the dilapidated theater were moth bitten and infested with rats that skirted around our feet. After checking the building twice to make sure it was as empty and desolate as it seemed, the corpulent wizard whipped a boot out of his pocket and cast a spell on it causing it to glow bright blue for a moment.

"Grab on and make sure your trunk is with you" He said. After a few moments I felt the much hated nasal jerk and we began to spin through time, or so it seemed. We landed with a thump in Dumbledore's office. The old wizard grinned at us, his blue eyes twinkling from behind his half moon spectacles.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts, where the tortured and the troubled find their own," He said winking.

* * *

The world was wreaking havoc on him, taking revenge for Goodness knows what! His vacation was the opposite of mine; he could scarcely eat and scarcely sleep. Ron was to put it bluntly, a wreck. Harry did not fare any better, in order to sleep he needed a potion, and during the day, talking to him was like talking to a bomb. One second he was sitting there like an empty shell the next he had exploded into an angry rant that sucked all the energy out of him, or he would explode into sobs that could not be halted. They could hardly wait for Hogwarts then they would at least have class work and Quiddich to keep them busy. Then again, Hogwarts without Hermione was like Pizza with no cheese, unthinkable. 

The morning of September first dawned bleak and gray, it matched Ron's mood perfectly. The routine Pre- Hogwarts hustle lacked its usual spirit; everything seemed to be drained of energy and color. That suited Ron fine, even gray was beginning to be too bright for him. He boarded the train and headed for his regular compartment. He had given up his prefect badge. Without Hermione there to pester him and make him go to meetings and follow the rules, there was no point. The annoying voice in the back of his head nagged him reminding him that he and Harry had excluded Hermione a lot that past year, but each time he was reminded he told the little voice to go fuck itself and tried to focus his mind on other things. He found that he could even read Ginny's History of Magic book without falling asleep, anything was better than actually feeling his emotions.

The silence in the compartment was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Harry just stared out the window at the gray day, Ginny was brooding over something in the back corner of the compartment, and Ron lay across two seats, hoping that the rhythm of the train would lull him to sleep. The sound of Harry crying out in frustration scared Ron to death. Before you could say Boobotuber Pus, Ron's was on his feet with his wand drawn.

"It's not fair, not bloody fair! My mum died to save me so that I could save the world, and I've failed her. My family has all left me, I have but one friend left in this sea of madness. I have no will left to live and yet I have to because I still have to save the magical world. But I don't want to save anybody; they haven't saved me from depression. I fear myself more than I fear Voldemort, it's a scary thought, but it's true. Hermione just as good as died at my hands. I tried to summon up my mother's love to save the world, but I could not feel it strong enough. In the end it saved only me, I am no hero, I'm selfish. I want to end my life right now, it's too overwhelming. I see the death and I relive all the painful memories, even when I am awake they haunt me. There is no escape from the terror I have witnessed, save for death" Harry said, his voice was icy and cold, shivers ran up and down Ron's spine.

"Don't say that Harry, you know it's not your fault." He said, trying to stop his friend from speaking. Even the blind rage was better than this.

"I won't stop, because it's true and nothing you can say will change that."

"She would have wanted you to keep fighting Harry. She would have told you to stay strong. She would have something to say to calm you down! But I'm not her, and I don't think like her and I never will."

"I can barely recall her anymore. We excluded her last year, because we got bored of her and now we suffer for it. She never did anything wrong to us, but we pushed her away and she knew it. I could not look her in the eye, the hurt was there engraved clearly burning with the intensity of a white hot flame." Harry said, in the same cold voice. Ron wondered when his friend had become so poetic and eloquent when it came to speaking.

The train came to an abrupt halt, they were at Hogwarts. They were home. Ron straitened his robes and plastered a smile on his face. Once he was prepared to greet the rest of the students he stepped off the train. The eerie thestrals looked him in the eye unblinking. Hogsmeade looked like a ghost town, the students were grim and tense and very few in number as far as he could tell. Many had been pulled from the school and went into hiding out of fear that the castle would be taken. _Or she will crumble from within…_they feared that was its inevitable fate. They knew that house rivalry was too strong for there ever to be unity. If Voldemort ever came knocking on the castle door, the students would tear each other apart before he even had a chance to kill them. We are weak; Dumbledore is all that holds this school together.

The castle became visible, but for once Ron did not feel the familiar excitement or the raging hunger at the thought of the feast. The idea of so much food in once place nauseated him, even though he had not eaten properly in weeks. Harry did not feel a thing, his rant, although it was a colder quieter rant, had tired him out again, and the familiar zombie like face took over him as his nightmares replayed over and over again. Ron fell asleep during the sorting, and woke up as food appeared on the plates. He heaped his plate with all his favorite foods, but it did not have the heavenly taste that Hogwarts food possessed, it was cold and dry. He felt like he was swallowing the ashes from a fire that had long ago burnt out. Harry did not even notice the food. His classmates shot him sympathetic glances, but he did not see them.

"I'm sorry for your loss…" followed the gray twosome up the common room that night. Ron felt that if he heard those words again he would strangle so many people it would be considered genocide. He made a Beeline for his four poster bed and let a fitful sleep take over him. Harry climbed into his own bed but could not sleep without a dreamless sleep potion. He was too drained of energy to get out of bed. Tomorrow night he promised himself as he prepared for another night of no sleep. Hermione watched them from under the invisibility cloak; it was all she could do not to groan. Harry and Ron were still shattered and they would not take the news of her being alive as lightly as she had hoped.

* * *

Ginny Weasley was not the sort of girl who could play damsel in distress, or sit in the background and watch others do the work. She was active and a fighter, yet, nobody noticed that. She was the youngest of seven children, and the only girl. As a result of that she was babied and mothered and kept as far from harms way as was physically possible. 

"Stay in bed Ginny, you look a bit under the weather." "Don't touch that Ginny; there is a slight chance you may get hurt." "We don't need your help Gin, maybe some other time." Were some of the most occurring phrases in her life.

Now they had been thrust into a war by no choice of their own and they were looking for help. She was ready and willing to give them that help. She could fight, as she had proven twice, and she could strategize. But they did not see her accomplishments and they politely, but bluntly rejected her offer. _When will they realize that I'm 16 not 6?_ She often wondered. Probably never at the rate things were going. She was doomed to living in the shadows of siblings who fought strongly against Voldemort, siblings who took the credit for what she had done to help the cause. She was not the sort of girl who did well with being overlooked, under-appreciated and living in the shadows, so she rebelled, if you can even call it that. Most of her rebellions were somehow stopped early by one of her many mothers. The other ones went unnoticed. She craved attention and power. It was a burning desire that slowly made its way to her heart and dwelled there, waiting for its chance to jump out.

* * *

a/n Another chapter down! I just though I should mention that the song excerpt from the beginning of the chapter foreshadows the rest of the chapter, and if you don't understand how, feel free to tell me in your review and I will explain it in the authors note in my next chapter. 

**Chaste-aeon**- I've bought you an entire pack of chips ahoy! Creamwitches. Enjoy them, seeing as there are no other reviewers, you don't have to share them. The "You your" thing was a mistake, I'll fix that when I get around to it. I'm glad you like my story. I'm hesitant at writing romance because it will take away from the point of the story, but there will be a little bit of romance (a little bit being the operative words). I happen not to like Harry and Ron, and it gives me great pleasure to make Harry angsty (which is not actually a word) while still being able to justify it, and both of them are always idiots, so that's not even OOC as far as I can tell based on how I perceive them.


	5. Chapter 4

**_Title_**: Tangled up in Darkness

**_Author_**: Tzippi Meshugah

**_Summery_**: War changes people, in ways we never would have known. Old rivalries are put behind us as we forge new alliances. War is upon us now and Hogwarts is changing. Students that were light are going dark, arch enemies are joining together and becoming friends. Unimaginable sacrifices will be made and it all comes down to the final battle to determine who will be victorious and what the consequences of that victory will be. We are tangled up in darkness and we must escape before the light flickers out for good. Narrated by Millicent Bulstrode.

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Tangled up in Darkness

_Chapter4 _

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A rank stench wafted through the dimly lit passage way. Dumbledore wrinkled his nose slightly as he glided briskly through the stone corridor. He stopped abruptly as he came to a stone wall, seemingly blocking his path. Slipping his worn wand out of his pocket, he began to tap out a pattern on the wall. The bricks liquidated leaving him room to step through an archway. As soon as he stepped through, they immediately regained the appearance of a caving-in wall. The room that Dumbledore had entered differed drastically from the musky stone passage. It was a well lit room, carpeted with luxuriant black carpet. The wall he stood facing was decorated with the old version of the Hogwarts shield with the ever faithful motto underneath it. The other walls were white, each one containing two doorways. Each led to a different one of the founder's chambers.

In the center of the room stood a round antique table, rumored to date back to the time of King Arthur and Merlin. Twelve wizards and witches sat around it, waiting for him to arrive. They were the inner circle of the Order of the Phoenix. A select group of the most trusted members of the Order. There was at least one representative from each section of the Order, to help keep track of the goings on.

Dumbledore eased himself down into the chair engraved with a Phoenix, formerly belonging to none other than Godric Gryffindor himself. The other members sat in anticipation, searching Dumbledore's grim expression for the reassuring twinkle in his eye that would show that all hope had not been lost. He cleared his throat, seeming for the first time at a loss for words.

"How is the house unity project going?" The portly wizard that had escorted Hermione to and from my house asked. His voice edged with hope.

"As the muggles say that_ is the million pound question, _Damien. The three of them arrived alive and happy, so I'm assuming that's a good sign" Dumbledore said lightly. "But as for what direction it will take once school is back in full swing, I cannot say. Right now there is no silver lining on this cloud we seem to be stranded upon. House tension will be at its strongest with the seventh years. Some of them will be initiated into Voldemort's ranks, if they have not been already. Betrayal will be everywhere and we have to do our best to keep it in check." He added, the gentleness gone from his voice.

The other teachers exchanged nervous looks; Dumbledore's uncertainty was a bit unnerving. Even if he was confident that they all would die gory painful deaths they would feel better, because at least that was something concrete to build a plan on.

"Are there any actions being taken to promote house unity between the rest of the houses?" Minerva McGonagall asked nervously, fingering a wisp of silver hair that escaped her tight bun.

"Our head boy and girl, Ernie Macmillan and Lisa Turpin are working with me to plan inter house events." He said solemnly.

"Macmillan and Turpin, but do you really think that's wise sir, with all due respect, much as I despise her house, there is no denying that Hermione Granger would be much more suited for the job, as would that Slytherin bloke Zabini, " Severus Snape drawled.

"Hermione Granger was believed to be dead and we could hardly tell the prefects that she was head girl if we needed her to stay undercover. She will prove much more useful working with me behind the scenes, as well as Blaise Zabini who being a Slytherin is hated by most of the school and would not be a widely accepted Head Boy." Dumbledore pointed out. "Now, are there any more concerns that need to be brought to attention?"

"I am working on contacting the Vampires, though they are dark creatures, there is rumored to be a race of them that was excommunicated for preaching against Dark Lord Grindelwald, and since then has grown to be rather large." Amelia Bones piped up.

"Very good Minister, well, if that is all, this meeting is adjourned." He said getting up from his chair. After all the members of the Inner circle had filed out of the archway, Dumbledore approached the emblem on the wall across from his seat.

"Well Godric, are you ready to tell me who will have access to that valuable information in the library your chambers?"

The translucent form of a young man appeared in front of him. "No, but I will notify you when I'm ready to disclose that information." He said winking, his loud voice ringing off the walls in the antechamber.

"Thank you Godric." He said turning and exiting the chamber grinning. He knew who the people Godric was referring to were and hoped that they would be able to get along long enough to get work done together.

* * *

Draco glanced nervously at the dark mark branded on his arm, it was glowing green and burning him painfully. He had been summoned. Nervously he tugged on the sleeve of his robes. He had not thought it very wise to become a death eater while still attending Hogwarts; however his father in one of his infrequent letters from his high security prison insisted that the Dark Lord had his reasons. Because he was eager to avenge his father's death, he had joined the ranks of the death eaters. Tonight he was going to find out the reasons. 

"Enter," Hissed a cold voice which sent shivers down Draco's spine. Gulping Draco stepped through the stone doorway into a dim torch lit chamber and bowed deeply. The stones on the wall flickered eerily in the torchlight. A faint dripping like one would expect to hear in a dilapidated cave echoed quietly in the otherwise silent room sending shivers up and down Draco's spine. Voldemort stood with his back to the door, but his own teachings told Draco that The Dark Lord was fully aware of what was taking place behind him.

"Take a ssseat" He said without turning around, confirming Draco's suspicion. Draco scanned the room; the only chair in site was a slab of stone with chains drilled into it. The cuffs snapped open and closed as if laughing at him. Nervously, Draco trudged toward the chair, trying to hide the fear from his eyes.

"They won't bind you unless I command them too, which I will only do if your force me." Voldemort turned to look at Draco, his red slit eyes unblinkingly settled on Draco's face and the hint of a smile played around his lips. Rather than disobey the Dark Lord, Draco scurried into the chair.

"I am now going to take you into my confidence, if word of this leaves the room, except to the appropriate ears you will suffer mercilessly for it." He said, his long gray fingers gliding across his wand. "You are being assigned to an important mission, one that I will be very furious if it were to fail, so you best make sure it doesn't. Seeing as Dumbledore rejected all the Death Eaters that put themselves forward for the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Snape is now there alone. I fear however the Dumbledore is beginning to suspect him, because he has not been able to report anything worthwhile for months. I need you to bring back any information regarding Dumbledore, the Inner Circle of the Order of the Phoenix, and Harry Potter that you can get your hands on." Voldemort's eyes narrowed as the last name slipped off his tongue. "I know you are not close with Potter, this might involve choosing and inside source who is close to him. Choose wisely. If you are successful, you will be rewarded greatly, if you fail, you may have to pay with your own life."

Draco swallowed nervously again, but nodded all the same. Refusing a task from the Dark Lord meant inevitable death.

"Only your father knows about this mission. It will remain strictly confidential to offer you as much protection as I can give. If others were to be caught and questioned they would not be able to betray you. Now go, and tell your father I'm working on a way to break him out. I know his incoming mail is read, but I have a spy in with the back up guard they will employ to surround him." Voldemort laughed manically.

Draco leapt down from the chair and after bowing once again to Voldemort he scampered out of the room. He had a train to catch to Hogwarts the next morning, and a mission to fulfill.

* * *

Sun should not be allowed at 6 in the morning, Hermione decided, as she tried to find a comfortable place in her bed. It was no use; she was up for the day. Why had she volunteered to sleep in the bed nearest to the window in first year? Sighing, she sat up; she might as well be the first one to claim the shower. 

One long shower, three hair elastics, and two cups of coffee later, Hermione sat uneasily in the great hall, twirling her thick curly ponytail around her finger. From what she could tell, it was already beginning to frizz into its normal bushy mess, so much for good first impressions. All thoughts of making a good impression immediately flew out of her head as she saw Harry and Ron being propelled toward the table by Dean Thomas. The three stopped dead in their tracks as the saw who was sitting at the table in her normal seat.

"Am I dreaming?" She heard Ron ask.

"If you are, I'm having the same dream" Dean answered releasing Ron and Harry so that he could rub his eyes.

"Pinch me," Came Harry's husky voice, slightly hoarse from the impact of the shock. Dean absent mindedly leaned over and pinched him. "Ow!" He cried a few seconds later, apparently startled.

"We're not dreaming." Ron concluded based on his friend's reaction, and began to walk rapidly to the Gryffindor table.

"Morning" Hermione said remotely to them. It was her normal morning greeting.

"You're alive," Harry breathed.

"Quite so, as is plainly obvious." Hermione spooned some porridge into her mouth, though she was not particularly hungry. From across the hall I shot her a quick smile which she returned before regaining her blank pompous expression.

"But the paper said you were dead!" protested Ron.

"And if we believed everything we read, Ronald, then Harry would be an attention seeking loon, and Dumbledore would be an old coot off his rocker." Hermione pointed out, still maintaining her distant tone of voice. "Though the latter is questionable," She added.

"Why did you let us believe you were dead? You had us in a right state all summer!" Ron said, his voice rising, anger and hurt beginning to replace the shock in his eyes.

"This is not the best place to discuss the matter Ronald."

"Fine, but don't think I'm letting you off the hook that easily!"

"The thought never even crossed my mind," She said simply, swinging her book bag over her shoulder and walking out of the great hall, not meeting anybody's gaze.

"That seemed to go well." Blaise said quietly to her out of the corner of his mouth as he walked to class, a fair distance from her.

"For now," She mumbled. "I'm going to have hell to pay later, I wish I didn't have to push it off, all day he's going to brood and tonight when I get a chance to tell him he's going to be nearing an explosion," She shot back in the same manner. I came up behind her and touched her shoulder comfortingly before joining Blaise on the other side of the deserted hall.

"After you escape the interrogation, meet us in the Muggle literature section of the library." I whispered as we turned into the potions room and took our respected seats in the back row, across the room from each other. A few moments later Hermione was joined by Harry who made a big scene of taking his supplies noisily out of his bag while ignoring Hermione's attempts at polite conversation. Ron must have gotten to him. She shrugged and turned back to writing on her roll of parchment. Students began filing in, followed by Snape and our first class of seventh year began.

* * *

Hermione closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, hoping in vain that she would be able to keep her cool. She had put everything that had happened prior to her arrival in Venice in the back of her mind. Many years of hiding her true feelings had given her the ability to numb herself to pain and depression and release it to herself in small doses. This, however, was much more painful than the other misery she had managed to ignore and even the slightest recollection of it would shatter the barrier and bring it to mind in a far more agonizing manner. Nervously, she pushed open the door of her dorm room and headed downstairs. Students lay haphazardly on couches and chairs, only Ron and Harry sat uptight staring at the stairs waiting for her arrival. 

She walked briskly over to a chair and took a seat. The common room seemed to fall quiet and all eyes fell on her. For what seemed like ages nobody spoke, finally Hermione spoke up.

"It would be much appreciated if everyone was toevacuate the common room for a few moments." She said, addressing the students who were watching the building tension in the staring contest she seemed to be having with Harry and Ron. For a few moments, nobody moved.

"Please?" She added. Suddenly as if that word had been enought to trigger a reaction,the students reluctantly began to exit the room.

"Why didn't you tell us you were still alive?" Ron asked, his voice quivering slightly with hurt.

"I was being hunted by Voldemort if I was to be caught I would surely be killed." She calmly explained.

"But we wouldn't have ratted you out!" Ron protested.

"There are spies in the order, if you were not convincingly sad they would suspect something."

"So where were you all summer?" Harry asked calmly.

"In Venice, at Millicent Bulstrode's house," She answered truthfully, they were going to find out eventually it might as well be now. Ron's eyes began to flash with anger, Hermione half expected to see smoke coming out of his ears.

"You were at a **_Slytherin's _**house!" Ron said, jumping to his feet, spatting out Slytherin like it was a dirty word. "Your enemy knew you were alive, but you didn't have the courtesy to let your friends know?"

"Enemies, as in plural Ron, Blaise Zabini lives across the street from her, and they are no longer my enemies. Once you get past the crest on their robes they are no different from me." She said sharply.

"But we are your friends, we have been for ages!" He cried his voice reaching a note of hysteria. Hermione's eye narrowed and her calm demeanor began to evaporate. She tried to compress it, push it back into herself like she had been trained to do, but it exploded in her face, a reckless rage burning all those around it.

"Some friends!" She cried angrily. "Last year when I needed you, you were too busy for me! I became a walking talking encyclopedia to you and nothing more. You didn't care for my opinion, and you didn't care what I felt. And then, when other people tried to talk to me, you scared them away because you were afraid that I would replace you."

"That's not true Hermione." Harry said his voice cracking.

"Are you calling me a liar, Harry? You know it's true and I know it's true. You were bored of me, but you didn't even bother to get to know the real me, just the know it all exterior. You only became 'friends' with me because you saved me from the troll in first year and then I sweet- talked you out of trouble. You didn't become friends with me because of my qualities, just my homework answers. And now you have the gall to say that you were my friends! Blaise and Millicent are more my friends than you will ever be!"

"Hermione, stop, please! You're over reacting!" Ron cried in frustration.

"I'm over reacting, if I recall correctly you were the one who put his own concerns over that of the magical world. You cared more that I didn't tell you I was alive than you did that had I told you I could have died for real. I thought you would be happy to see me. Apparently I was wrong."

"At least I was more of a friend to you than Millicent Bulstrode who was in the Inquisitorial Squad, and who put you in a headlock!"

"Millicent and Blaise got to know me for who I really was, despite the fact that she hated me before this summer and we were in rival houses. You on the other hand kept me isolated from meeting other students so that I could supply you with answers to your homework! They are at least sympathetic to the fact that I lost two parents unlike some people I know!"

"Well if you're such good chums, why don't you just head on over and meet them and get out of my sight!" Ron yelled his eyes flashing. Harry tugged on his robes trying to calm him down. Hermione turned on her heel and headed for the portrait hole.

"Hermione, wait!" Ginny called.

"I did my waiting, all last year I waited and now I'm sick of waiting. If you want me I'll be with my real friends." She spat and fled from the room. As soon as she was a safe distance from the common room she began to sob. Blindly she stumbled into the library and managed to navigate the Muggle literature room where Blaise and I stood waiting. She collapsed on the floor in a heap, sobbing uncontrollably. Her sobs were heart wrenching, and before I knew it, tears were flowing down my own face. Blaise had pulled her small frame into his lap and he sat calmly stroking her hair. I joined them on the floor.

For a while all that could be heard were her sobs. Finally she quieted. "I've needed to do that the whole summer. I pushed all the pain out of the way, I tried to ignore it and it worked. I felt nothing because of them. I cried because I knew it was healthy, not because I felt anything. But now it has all surfaced and the pain is fresh and it's consuming me. I can't take it." She said meekly, her voice quaking.

"Shhhh, don't talk like that" Blaise said soothingly enveloping her in a hug. She snuggled closer against his warm body.

"What happened up there?" I asked.

"They were angry that you knew I was alive and not them. I then lost it and everything, all the hatred I have for them for the way they neglected me last year, the hate I have for Voldemort killing my parents, just exploded out of me and I lectured them for how they treated me in comparison to you. Luckily I managed not to break down in front of them." She said, her normal confidence beginning to return to her voice.

"Do you want to hear our suggestions for temptingly agonizing ways to kill them in their sleep?" Blaise offered.

"Sure," She said eagerly. I felt a wave of pity wash over me. Hermione had lost her parents and now her friends. All she had was us.

"We should take her and introduce her to the others" I said interrupting Blaise.

"Now?" She asked nervously.

"Well, maybe not now, we should warn them first, but tomorrow." An awkward silence followed my proposal and I immediately regretted suggesting it.

"How did you know about the Muggle book section?" She asked randomly breaking the awkward silence, her eyes hungrily scanning the room we were in which was filled from ceiling to floor with Muggle works of fiction and non fiction.

"Muggles are the brightest writers ever, they have no magic and yet they manage to weave intriguing spellbinding stories from their imagination. Wizard authors don't even compare," I said, Blaise nodded in agreement. Groaning, I got up from the floor, and straightened my robes. "I don't know about you, but I'm getting rather uncomfortable on this floor. I'll see you tomorrow, Hermione" I said walking out of the door. Hermione got off of Blaise's lap and straitened her robes.

"Thank you guys for everything" She whispered.

"No problem, that's what friends are for." Blaise said getting to his feet as well.The three of us headed out of the library and turned in out separate directions.

* * *

As the portrait slammed behind Hermione, Harry Ron and Ginny sat staring idly at it for a moment. 

"Nice going Ron!" Harry said sharply.

"You treated her just as badly as I did" Ron protested grudgingly.

"I can't believe the two of you!" Ginny cried incredulously glaring at Ron and Harry.

"Butt out Ginny, this has nothing to do with you." Ron snapped.

"It has everything to do with me!" She replied.

"Just stay out of it Gin," Ron said turning to go up to his room. "How I behaved is none of your concern, and I'm not in the mood for a lecture from my little sister."

"I'm not trying to lecture you! I'm trying to tell you to apologize, Hermione didn't deserve that treatment!"

"Just go away Ginny!" Ron called from halfway up the stairs. A few seconds later the slam of the fat lady's portrait announced that she had.

Ginny ran, blinded by her tears. She did not normally react like this; her brother's outbursts were common. But this was like the straw that broke the camel's back. She was sick and tired of being pushed around. It hurt her that she was so insignificant. Her feet led her unsuspectingly to the astronomy tower. Panting she flung herself into a seat and screamed a loud piercing scream that filled the heaves. She screamed until she had no energy left and she collapsed in a lump on the floor.

Something silver glinted in the faint light. She reached out for it and found a bloody razor blade. Some other student must have been attempting suicide. She started to throw the razor away, but stopped suddenly. The dried blood on the razor seemed to call to her. With a quick scourgify she cleaned it off and looked at it. Her eyes reflected in it, stormy blue with a passionate glint in them. She held it to her arm. The blade called to her, inviting her to slit her wrist, just to see the blood flow from it. An invisible force pushed her hand down and she made a gentle cut in her arm. The red blood flowed out over her pale skin contrasting greatly with it. The blood sparkled in the light and gave her an odd satisfaction. Watching unflinching as her blood poured out of her wound gave her a powerful feeling, one which she had not felt in quite a while, tucking the razor blade into he pocket she headed back to her dorm to dress the gash. A surge of adrenaline rushed through her; she had not felt this powerful in a while. The power of determining her own fate was now in her hands, whether it is to be life or death was up to her and the little blade that currently resides in her pocket.

* * *

The next night Hermione stood nervously shifting from one foot to the other in the lowest coldest part of the dungeons. I shot her a reassuring glance and knocked on a stone wall. 

"Baddock, please don't, like, say you forgot the password already!" A high pitched girlish voice called, growing louder as it grew nearer. The stone wall opened suddenly as if it was on hinges. "Millie? You with the memory and figure of an elephant have forgotten the password? Oh -my -gosh! Wait till I tell the others!" She squealed excitedly.

"Relax Tracy, I know the password, however if you want to keep it away from Gryffindor ears I won't say it here." I reassured her ignoring the insult that she had thrown in.

Tracy Davis raised a perfectly plucked dirty blond eyebrow as she peered out of the doorway. "Well, well, if it isn't Hermione Granger. What brings your high and mighty self, like, all the way over here to the dungeons of, like, doom?" She asked in an American drawl. I had a strong urge to slap her, I never slapped people, but seeing a red handprint on her perfect skin would be rather rewarding right about now. I despised that accent she had picked up over her summer vacation two years ago. However it would not be wise for a Slytherin to be caught harming another. It was clearly stated in the book of official unwritten Slytherin guidelines that such an act was considered treason, so I gritted my teeth and smiled forcedly.

"Actually Tracy, she's a friend of ours, Hermione, this is Tracy Davis." Blaise said seeing that I was in no state to be talking. I managed a nod of agreement as her eyebrow shot up farther as if inquiring its truth value from me.

"Like, wow Blaise, you're going to have a ton of, like, explaining to do. Draco is not going to be happy." Tracy said flipping her long silky dirty blond hair over her shoulder.

"He's not in charge." Mumbled Blaise looking suddenly apprehensive. I steered Hermione who was slowly backing away into the common room. The wall sealed itself behind us leaving only the lush green of the Slytherin common room stretching out to all sides. Thick green carpeting covered the stone floor, keeping out much of the cold in the winter. The walls were shades of light green swirling together around the room. Directly in front of us was the warm green fire flickered invitingly its warmth radiating and filling the room with a homey feeling.

"Wow!" She breathed drinking in the beautiful view.

"You like?" Tracy asked her, patting the couch as a gesture of invitation to sit down.

"It's beautiful! I've always loved green, this reminds me of my room back at home, before… you know" She said, her voice cracking slightly, but she managed to keep her emotions in check.

"So, like, Granger, or should I say Hermione, from the looks of things I'll like, be seeing quite a bit of you, what brought about this, like, change of heart?" Tracy drawled. Goodness only knows how badly I wanted to slap her.

"It's a long story, but to make things simple, I met Blaise and Millicent this summer and they showed me that Slytherins were not as bad as people made them out to be, and seeing as the sorting hat almost put me here I figured it was high time I met the people who were almost my house mates." By this time the entire Slytherin seventh year was crowded around her as well as many students from other years.

"And you accepted this dung she's feeding you?" Draco Malfoy asked me, his cold sneer spread across his face.

"Yes actually," I answered staring into his eyes unblinkingly.

"This is Golden Girl Granger, she's probably got some sort of evil plot up her sleeve I can't believe you let seven years of defense just fall at her plea. You're despicable Bulstrode." He spat angrily. I kept my cool though.

"I did not just let my _defense_ fall, Malfoy, she spent the entire summer at my house and after careful observation we determined that she meant no harm and was sincere. Besides, if she were to have a plot up her sleeve that would be a very Slytherin type thing to do, thus supporting what she just said." I pointed out. Draco opened his mouth as if to respond, but shut it again at a loss for what to say.

"Don't think that just because they accepted you so readily the rest of us will be just as easy to convince Granger. You are still are our enemy, even if we will accept your presence here." Draco scoffed before exiting the common room. Crabb and Goyle blindly followed him, knocking a first year out of the way as they walked past. Pansy obediently followed her boy friend after letting out a small "Humph!" of dissatisfaction.

"Well, you've met Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Tracy, that leaves Theo and Daphne." Blaise said breaking the awkward silence that settled over the room following Draco's departure.

"Nice to meet you, I suppose." Theodore Nott, a tall gangly boy with watery eyes said sticking out his bony pale hand.

"You can't shake hands with a clenched fist," Daphne said, immediately closing her hand into a fist.

"Fair enough I suppose." Hermione said. Speaking up for the first time since Draco had come down.

"She means she won't trust you yet, you still have to prove yourself."

"Somehow I understood her, oddly enough. You really are a remarkably genius person, Daphne."

"Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an un-habitual way." She replied tucking a strand of thick black hair behind her ears nervously fighting down blush that was threatening to creep up her face and shatter her Slytherin mask. Quickly she got to her feet and with a sweep of her cloak, left the common room.

"So," Blaise said nervously, "What did you think?"

"It will take time for them to accept me, but I will admit that not all of them are as evil and shallow as I originally imagined, no matter what side they're on." Hermione said slowly.

"Yay!" Blaise said throwing his arms around her short stature. A bewildered expression crossed her face. Quickly he regained his composure blushing bright red.

"That was weird and out of character, you don't normally show emotion any more than your cold hearted mask even within the confinement of the common room." I said giving him a quizzical look.

"I got a bit excited and lost my mind for a moment there. Now, can we please go down to dinner?" He begged trying in vain to change the subject. I dropped it for the time being, but he knew he was not getting off the hook this easily.

* * *

a/n- Another Chapter finished (duh) and it's over 5,000 words. I really should have split it, but oh well. 

Thank you to my faithful reviewer _chaste-aeon_, I've baked you a cake to show my appreciation. I don't mind you correcting my grammar at all, as soon as I post this chapter, I'll fix those mistakes. Feel free to keep correcting. I'd love to comment more on your review, which I did before deleting it, because it gave too much away and I like keeping you in suspense grins wickedly. The song I took those lines from is called _Down_ by Something Corporate. I use their songs because they're the only emo band I listen to and it puts me in a better frame of mind for this story.

And thank you to _Fantasy Loremaster_, my second reviewer! I think I've died and gone to heaven, I have two reviews for a chapter! Pinches herself, nope still here. Wow. I've baked you a cake too. I'm glad you like the story.

If you notice, there are no lyrics at the beginning of this story. Fanfiction has updated its rules and they now forbid passing off song lyrics as your own. While I am not even in the slightest trying to pass them off as my own, I've had two stories of mine banned because of that and I fear this one is next. That is why this one is so late, because when they ban stories they suspend your account. I'm very angry about this, because I was not informed that the rules had changed nor was I warned that my story was breaking a new rule, they just banned me. Storms off to write next chapter


	6. Chapter 5

**_Title_**: Tangled up in Darkness

**_Author_**: Tzippi Meshugah

**_Summery_**: War changes people, in ways we never would have known. Old rivalries are put behind us as we forge new alliances. War is upon us now and Hogwarts is changing. Students that were light are going dark, arch enemies are joining together and becoming friends. Unimaginable sacrifices will be made and it all comes down to the final battle to determine who will be victorious and what the consequences of that victory will be. We are tangled up in darkness and we must escape before the light flickers out for good. Narrated by Millicent Bulstrode.

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* * *

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Tangled up in Darkness

_Chapter5_

_

* * *

_

Silence can be golden and it can kill. The temptation to talk is overwhelming, but the knowledge that such a mysterious thing as silence cannot be broken lingers in the air. Silence can break up friendships and create ones that never would have occurred otherwise. It can be thick, deafening, awkward or serene. It all depends on the context. The silence that hovered over Gryffindor house was in a way, all of the above.

The fight that broke up the Golden Trio loitered heavily in the air leaving a thick atmosphere of silence in its wake. It overpowered the laughter of friends and the sobbing of the broken hearted so much, that staying in the common room more than what was absolutely necessary was enough to result in a painful headache and difficulty hearing. Seeing the glares the Golden trio shot each other through the thick smoke, and their stubborn refusal to be the first to apologize made standing in their midst an awkward position. At the same time, there were no fights, just a serene silence hovering over them all. It may be contradictory, and yet all those forms of silence have managed to wrap the Gryffindors in an envelope sealed off from the rest of the school. Remarkably it's all caused by the fight of three friends.

Who would have known that they alone were the ones that held together everything that Gryffindor stood for? Together they could do great things; alone they have strengths and weaknesses. Ron's temper flares high at the slightest offence and without Harry and Hermione to cool him off, he lands himself in trouble time after time. His sense of direction was never his own and now he is alone and stranded in the dark. He has a chance to forge his own path, but he cannot navigate himself out of his isolated existence.

Harry cannot stay above water without the encouragement of his friends. He is slowly slipping below the surface into depression as the growing hate burning in his soul tries to push him back to the top for another deep breath. He has nowhere to turn in the twirling whirlpool he calls: "his life". His angsty personality causes him to spontaneously lash out at those around him as if they are all against him. He clings tight to the aura of love that used to surround him, and rises above and beyond his limits because there is nobody to hold him back.

Out of the three, Hermione fared best, without her friends she has no reason to remain loyal so she doesn't. Ambition, observance and a sly way of thinking slowly resurface in her. They resided in her deep down all along, but now they are breaking to the surface, each day growing more evident, for the reason that it is how she was destined to be from the very beginning. She was always the weak know-it-all who was willing to do anything for her friends. Now, her backbone is forming as she grows into the sharp witted person she was fated to become. Slytherin powers are rising in her as she turns toward her enemy house as a place of welcome and comfort. The mask she used to wear is scarcely present. She still knows everything when it comes to school, but her observance and newly opened eyes lead her to see the truth about every one of her school mates as well. Her new mask is forming to be the distant coldness that meant Slytherin, but it will always be translucent, the six years she spent in Gryffindor will never truly leave her. People can be altered but they never will truly change.

* * *

"Is Hermione here?" Ron asked from the doorway to the muggle literature. 

"I can't imagine what you would want with her, she's not apologizing." I snapped coldly preparing to slam the door in his face.

"I can speak for myself, Millicent." Hermione said coldly, the style of how we treated each other in public, placing her book on the table.

"Of course," I said offhandedly, a sneer plastered on my face.

"What is it Ronald? Please make it quick."

"I've been thinking," he began.

"That's something new. I can't say I've ever seen you do that before." Hermione snapped.

"Gosh darn it Hermione, I'm trying to apologize!" He screamed. Madame Pince shot him a dirty look and a blush rose up his face.

"Maybe you better step inside," I said grabbing his arm in my strong death grip and dragging him into the room.

"Don't touch me! I don't need help from some stupid Slytherin!" He retorted and over his shoulder I saw Blaise shoot a silencing spell at the door which had closed behind Ron. I stepped back from the red head and stared coldly into his eyes, in turn, he flinched and turned away.

"I wanted to speak to Hermione in private."

"Oh, go right ahead, pretend we're not here." I said casually, flipping open the cover to Hermione's discarded book.

"But…" He protested, his voice trailing off.

"You're wasting my time, Weasley." Hermione said glancing at her watch and tapping her foot impatiently. Ron gasped at the use of his sure name and immediately looked at the floor.

"I came to apologize, I know it took me three months to realize, but you were right as usual and I'm sorry for how I treated you. I guess I was just jealous." Ron mumbled still staring at the floor. Hermione's eyes softened a bit.

"What you did was cruel and uncalled for. You should have been happy to see that I was alive. I will accept your apology, but don't think even for a moment that things are going back to the way they used to be until you prove yourself again." Hermione said sternly.

"Fair enough I suppose. Will you come to Hogsmeade with Harry and me this weekend?"

"Yes, now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be right now." She replied opening the door. She looked over her shoulder and winked at Blaise and me, indicating that she wanted to meet us here later.

* * *

"You wanted to see me professor?" Hermione asked, stepping into Minerva McGonagall's office. Her eyes swept around the small room quickly, taking in her surroundings. A small oak desk loaded with parchment sat in the center of the light maroon room. Matching oak shelves lined the walls filled from top to bottom with books, some in poor condition from age. Stairs, built up the sides of one of the book cases led to the oak door of her private chambers. 

"Yes, I did Miss. Granger," the tall old professor answered gesturing at the strait backed oak chair on the other side of her desk. "Biscuit?" She asked, holding a tin out to Hermione.

"Sure," Hermione said, selecting one from the tin.

Professor McGonagall selected one for herself and took a bite, deep in thought, considering how would be best to word her question.

"Is there something going on between you, Harry and Ron?" she asked finally.

"What would make you say that?" Hermione asked, nibbling the inside of her lip, trying to keep the nervous edge out of her voice.

"Many things Miss. Granger, for one, I've noticed you spending an awful lot of time with Slytherins, which I am very pleased to see. House unity is important right now. I've also noticed that Harry and Ron are not with you. Ron spends time with the other Gryffindor boys from your house, and Harry spends most of his time alone. Another one is of your essays; yours are still as brilliant as usual, but Harry and Ron's are often short, poorly worded, and they're missing the phrase that I've seen reoccurring for the past six years, _According to a reliable source…_ the reliable source being you or your paper." Professor McGonagall said leaning back in her chair waiting for Hermione's response.

"Well, we've been in a fight for the past few months," she admitted. Professor McGonagall said nothing, but the look in her eyes told Hermione that she should elaborate. "This summer when I was supposedly dead they were very distraught. Upon seeing me at Hogwarts, they were very angry to know that I had kept my life a secret from them. I explained the situation to them as best I could, but they are rather stubborn."

"As are you Miss Granger. It pains me to see such actions in my house. We are trying to unite the school, and while you have somehow managed to gain Slytherin acceptance, inner-house rivalry cannot be a consequence of that." Professor McGonagall said, getting to her feet.

"If you have not already, please forgive Ron and Harry, even if it's not for anything more than setting a good example for the younger years."

"I already did, and professor, I have a question for you."

"Yes?"

"Well, in my first year, the Sorting hat had difficulty placing me. Ravenclaw was one house it considered, the other one was Slytherin. In fact it said that I was better suited for that than Gryffindor, and because of this it was putting me in Gryffindor to unite both houses. Why would it do that?"

"That is a difficult question to answer. You should address Dumbledore with that question. The impression I get from this is the hat might have some sort of future telling abilities. That is one of the factors it takes into account at the sorting. It views you and your role in the world based on what it can see of the outcome of placing you in each house, one by one. Then it takes into account your past and present. After all those factors are considered, it sorts you. I'm not entirely certain though."

"That was my reasoning also," Hermione said, getting to her feet and exiting the small office.

Minerva McGonagall stared at the door as it closed behind her, wondering again how the most strait-forward witch in her year was so twisted. Shaking her head slightly, she exited the room as well in search of the headmaster. She would not be surprised if he already knew this latest bit of information.

* * *

Hermione sat in the Great Hall and stared up at the snowflakes falling from the enchanted ceiling. She was the only one in Gryffindor house ready, but the others would be awake soon, it was a Hogsmeade weekend. A huge figure moving across the grounds to the grove of evergreen trees told her that she was not the only one awake in the castle. Hagrid was already chopping down trees to set up in the Great Hall. Hermione looked at the list of items she needed to buy in Hogsmeade and hoped she had enough money. On the top of the list in Capital block letters was to meet Ginny to help her pick out a dress for the upcoming Christmas dance. 

Next on her list were presents. She had already picked out most of them from a magazine, but she still needed one for Draco Malfoy. Though the two were still not friends, he was more acceptant of her and had not called her a Mudblood since the day she had been in the common room for the first time. Even though no present would ever buy his friendship, she thought he deserved a thank you for his tolerance of her.

She was startled from her thoughts by someone plopping down beside her. "Knut for your thoughts?" the familiar rich voice of Blaise Zabini asked, a smirk plastered across his face.

"Keep your Knut; I'm not thinking anything of value."

"Nothing about me, your favorite Slytherin?" He teased, groaning inwardly realizing the hint he had just dropped and hoped she had taken his words as a joke and not seriously.

"Well, if you must know, I was wondering, since you're so kind to animals, why won't you give that face back to the gorilla?"

"Because the gorilla won't take it back, he seemed rather glad to be rid of it." Blaise said, getting to his feet and walking away.

* * *

Hermione skipped out of the Dress shop, her coin bag considerably lighter, she had found the perfect dress and it was being sent strait to her dorm. Before that, she had found the ideal present for Draco Malfoy, all in all it had been a very productive day. She stopped suddenly, Slytherins did not skip. It showed joy. Setting her face into its expressionless mask, she headed slowly for the Three Broomsticks to meet Harry and Ron. Halfway there she stopped again, she was not a Slytherin. Thoughts whirled about her head as she tried to imagine why that thought had even come to mind. The sorting hat's words echoed loudly, reverberating off her skull as they sailed through her head. She was becoming the person destiny had called on her to be, a Slytherin at heart and soul. The thought sunk into her head, smoldering as it burned a path to her brain and established itself there. Oddly, she was not upset for that realization to hit her. It was hard to believe that only a few months prior to this, she would have committed suicide rather than become who she was fated to be. 

Destiny frightened her. She hated to imagine that she had no control over her life and every action, every thought was mapped out. Who was the one controlling her life? Did they have a good life planned for her, or a tragic young death? Shaking those thoughts out of her head as well, she returned her expression to the unfriendly Slytherin classic, and continued on her way.

As she turned the corner, onto a deserted section of the street which served as a short cut, an interesting site met her gaze. Draco Malfoy's pug faced girlfriend was backed into a wall by three dementors. Hermione stared at her coldly, this was not her concern. Pansy was not her house mate, and she had no obligation to help. But they were blocking the path she needed to take, and it would only require a few seconds of her time to frighten them away, while it would take far longer to go around and she was already late.

"Back away from her now!" Hermione yelled, her blue eyes flickering threateningly.

One of the Dementors broke away from the pack and headed for her. Hermione began to panic inwardly, still holding her expressionless mask as her deepest fears began to replay themselves in her head. _Why didn't I just go around? _She wondered. Being stuck on a deserted section of the street being backed into a wall, be dementors and Pansy was on the ground whimpering in a fetal position as dementors tried to suck out her soul was not her usual method of having fun. Raising her wand to the dementor's chest, she brought her happiest memory to mind and shouted "Riddikulus!" An otter burst out of her wand and chased down the three dementors who disappeared leaving a trail of wispy smoke in their wake. Breathing a huge sigh of relief that she had not been cracked like Pansy, she turned toward the feeble girl who was rocking on the ground.

She touched the girl lightly on the arm. Pansy shrieked loudly and began to sob. "Shhhh, it's alright Pansy, they're gone."

"You saved my life, Hermione." Pansy said, looking at Hermione with a new respect in her eyes. Hermione beamed, Pansy had used her first name for the first time. The sound of running feet on the cobblestone walkway caused Hermione to jump slightly.

"Get away from my girlfriend, Granger!" Draco Malfoy screamed, pushing Hermione away from Pansy.

"What did you do to her?" He demanded, glaring at Hermione with more hate than she had ever thought possible to see in a person.

"She saved my life Draco," Pansy said quietly getting to her feet.

"Why you little Mud-" Draco began furiously. "Wait, saved your life?" he asked, his tone growing gentler.

"I was being attacked by dementors and Hermione chased them away. They were about to give me the kiss. She saved my life" Pansy insisted, her voice growing more confident as she spoke.

"I never thought I'd see the day when little golden girl Granger would save the life of her enemy." Draco remarked.

"This is the fastest way to the Three Broomsticks and I'm late for a meeting there." Hermione replied coldly.

Draco just stared at her. That was not the Gryffindor way of thinking. Slytherins were the ones that would use any means to obtain their ends. "So you really are a Slytherin at heart, aren't you? I have to think about this one," Draco said, slowly more to himself than to anyone else. He offered his arm to Pansy and walked down to the Three Broomsticks. Hermione followed and headed for the table where Harry and Ron sat sullenly.

"You're late, I thought you were reconsidering coming." Ron said, his face lighting up at the site of hers. He passed her a tankard of Butterbeer. Hermione sipped it gratefully, the shock of her experience still gripping her tightly.

"I got sidetracked, I'm sorry to keep you waiting" She said slowly.

"Right, well, what do you want to do?"

"I really want to go back to the castle; I have a lot to think about." Hermione said, sipping her butterbeer thoughtfully.

"It has nothing to do with us, right?"

"No, don't worry." Hermione drained the butterbeer and stood up.

"We'll walk back with you," Ron offered. Hermione looked into his eyes. She had wanted to go back alone, but not wanting to upset him again agreed.

* * *

"I need to speak with Hermione," came the unfriendly drawl that everyone knew to belong to Draco Malfoy. Ron and Harry jumped to their feet, identical venomous expressions on their faces. 

"What do you want with her?" Harry asked threateningly.

"And it better be good, ferret boy!" Ron added.

"Relax, I just need to talk to her, you're acting like the world is ending. Though you would both benefit from that, Potty could act like a depressed PMSing girl in peace, and Weasel wouldn't have to pay off his enormous debt,"

Ron lunged at Malfoy, who expertly stepped out of his way sending him crashing to the floor. Unfazed by it, Ron stood up and prepared to lunge again.

"Ron! Stop! Draco just needs to talk to me, relax, I'll be fine."

"Draco?" Harry asked picking up on what Hermione had just said, "Since when are you two on first name basis?"

"Since I decided to be," Draco spat, grabbing the sleeve of her robe and dragging her away from the dinner table.

"This is something you will never hear again, so you better listen good."

"Listen **well**,"

"Whatever"

"I'll grab a quill and take notes on this then,"

"Will you let me get on with this before I decide it's not worth it?"

"I'm not stopping you"

"Thank you for saving my girlfriend's life, even if it was only done for your benefit. I think Blaise and Millicent were right about you." Draco said frigidly.

"You're welcome," Hermione said, matching his calloused tone.

"We will always be on opposite sides of the war, but I will not be the one to kill you, and neither will any of my friends." Draco said, the hints of a true smile breaking his cold mask. Hermione felt her heart soar, she had gained acceptance. "However if word gets out about what I have just said, I will deny everything. We may be friends, but only when it suits me." He added and walked away with a sweep of his cloak.

Blaise and I stepped quietly out from behind the pillar that had concealed us during their meeting. As soon as we saw him lead her out of the hall we followed. I'm curious, that's not a crime. Hermione stood as if rooted to the spot. Blaise and I exchanged wicked grins; I held my finger up to my lips. I clapped the other hand over Hermione's mouth to stifle her inevitable scream. Blaise opened the classroom door and I pushed her into it, my hand still clasped over her mouth. As the door slammed behind us, she bit my hand.

"I heard you, keep quieter next time," She said angrily as I massaged my hand. A smile broke through her irate expression.

"You gained ultimate Slytherin acceptance!" I said excitedly.

"I still don't know who made Draco boss, he's not even a prefect anymore!" Blaise said, angrily.

"You want to be boss then?" I asked.

"You know very well that I don't! It would make blending into the background very difficult." Blaise replied indignantly.

"That's why Draco's boss." I pointed out. Hermione smiled, she was on top of the world, and nothing could bring her down, save for one thing, Harry and Ron, who coincidentally had to burst angrily into the classroom at the exact moment. Curse their bad timing.

"Explain this!" Ron yelled, his wand drawn, poling us in the faces.

"It's nothing Ron," Hermione said, sighing.

"I suppose this is our cue to leave, you know where we'll be." Blaise said, dragging me out of the very crowded room.

"You're fraternizing with the enemy, again! We out of the goodness of our hearts come groveling back to you, even though everything was your fault anyway, to prevent you from associating them and how do you thank us, but hiding in deserted classrooms with them!" Ron yelled.

"Whoa! Ron! Don't even get me started! This was firstly not my fault; secondly, they are not the enemy! _You_ act more like the enemy than they do. It's un-accepting people like you who make them into the enemy! I can't believe you Ronald, why can't you back off and let me be? We have to be civil for the case of unity, but other than that I want nothing to do with you. You ignore me unless we need to work together, do I make myself perfectly clear? We are housemates, nothing more." Hermione said, frostily.

Ron stared at her gaping. "So that's it, after all these years of friendship, this is how it ends?"

"It would appear so," Hermione replied. "This doesn't carry over to you Harry, unless you want it to." Hermione softened her tone a bit as she addressed Harry who was looking quite aghast.

"If this is what makes you happy Hermione, I have no problem, we were unfriendly and even if Ron isn't sorry, I am. Just be careful. They seem like great people. I want to remain friends with both of you though so I won't be able to witness their hospitality and kindness for myself." Harry said monotonously, his normal tone lately.

"Thank you, Harry," Hermione said quietly, shooting him a sympathetic look. She turned on her heel and walked briskly toward the library where she knew Blaise and I would be waiting for her.

"So that's it, the Golden days of the trio are over?" I asked, as she entered the room in stony silence.

"Yes" She said, sinking onto the couch next to Blaise and resting her head in his lap and closing her eyes, the exhaustion from her trying day finally overwhelming her. A surprised expression crossed Blaise's face which quickly turned into a smile. He stroked her bushy hair, which was surprisingly silky to his touch. We sat in a serene silence for quite a while as Hermione drifted off to sleep.

"Ask her to the dance," I said quietly eyeing his compassionate expression.

"She won't go with me," He protested not meeting my eyes.

"But you like her and you care about her, and she should know that from you before I tell her."

"You wouldn't" He protested, but one look in my eyes told him otherwise. I'm quite devious, or so I have been told. Yet another reason I got sorted into the house of the Serpents.

"Besides, in order to promote house unity it is preferable that you go with someone of another house." I pointed out.

"You really think she'll agree to go with me?"

I nodded.

"I'll think about it," he said, resting his eyes on the pale bushy haired girl asleep in his lap. I smiled; they made such a cute couple, if only she would wake up and realize how he felt about her and how she felt about him. Then again, their sarcastic version of flirting was fairly entertaining.

* * *

a/n: And the plot thickens again… I hope you like this chapter, I don't think the quality of writing is as good as my other ones, but it needed to be here. As it is this one takes place three months after the previous one. I hope next chapter is more up to my standards. In stories, characters tend to go off and create themselves, but this chapter they just died on me and stopped giving me inspiration. (That sounds weird, but I hope you know what I mean.) 

_Fantasy Loremaster_- Of course chocolate, I love chocolate cake! I already have Blaise worked out exactly as I want him, I won't give him away here though. - You'll find out next chapter.

_Chaste-aeon –_ Thank you endlessly for beta-ing this chapter for me. If I had done it myself, I probably would have deleted the entire thing out of frustration. I'm running out of dessert ideas, so I'm sending you chocolate. I love that stuff, I really do. Anyway, thank you again for beta-ing for me. I'm dying to comment on your review from last chapter, but again, to do so would ruin the story as it's planned now, even though it is subject to change.


	7. Chapter 6

**_Title_**: Tangled up in Darkness

**_Author_**: Tzippi Meshugah

**_Summery_**: War changes people, in ways we never would have known. Old rivalries are put behind us as we forge new alliances. War is upon us now and Hogwarts is changing. Students that were light are going dark, arch enemies are joining together and becoming friends. Unimaginable sacrifices will be made and it all comes down to the final battle to determine who will be victorious and what the consequences of that victory will be. We are tangled up in darkness and we must escape before the light flickers out for good. Narrated by Millicent Bulstrode.

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* * *

**

Tangled up in Darkness

_Chapter 6

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_

Her thin white face glowed in the light of the dying fire, her gray eyes flashed as the flames flickered. Her red hair shined and seemed to be a part of the fire itself. It was late, past midnight, but still Ginny sat staring at the fire, unable to sleep. She had not been able to sleep for many weeks now, but even if she was deprived of an entire night's sleep, that didn't prevent her from staying up another night. She was never alone in the common room; Gryffindor housed another insomniac. He was kept awake for other reasons: nightmares. His _nightmares_ were so painful, so horrific, so alarming that he was afraid to allow his eyes to close. Sometimes they talked quietly, sometimes they just sat, each one aware of the other's presence. Tonight was different, tonight, and another girl was attempting to cheer up her companion. 

Blaise Zabini had shown up at the portrait several minutes earlier with Hermione sleeping angelically in his arms. Somehow he knew of their insomnia, though, being as observant as he is, it did not come as a shock. Unable to climb the stairs to the girl's dormitory, he set her gently down on the couch, which resulted to her awakening immediately. After quietly bidding them goodnight, and promising never to tell of his venture into the forbidden Gryffindor haven, the first Slytherin ever to enter the Gryffindor tower exited thought the portrait hole. Hermione and Harry had been talking ever since. They spoke of light and normal activities taking place at Hogwarts. Not moments after had the conversation drifted, shifting over to her as the subject of concern.

"You have to go to the ball, Harry, even if you don't go with anybody!"

"I'm suffering through enough torture right now, Hermione," was the bleak response.

"This is what Voldemort wants, Harry. He wants you to be unhappy and suffering, he wants to make you so miserable that you hand your life over to him and die. You have to fight it, Harry, be strong!"

"If that's really what Voldemort wants, then he's in luck; his plan is working. You have no idea how it is to be me, you have no idea what kind of troubles I'm suffering through. There is no way to explain it, there's no way you could know the extent of my pain. I don't sleep because nightmares haunt me, but the alternative, being awake is no better, because thoughts invade my waking life too. There is no escape; death is the only way out."

"That's not true, Harry, if you brood on your pain and let it take control of you- he will succeed, but if you fight it, and stay strong… good will triumph."

"Thanks, Hermione, you over estimate me"

"No, you underestimate yourself."

Harry leaned over and hugged Hermione Granger. Ginny felt a pang of jealousy run through her. She was over her crush on Harry, but she wished he would regard her as a friend. After nights and nights of sitting with him, talking to him, re-assuring him, he still ignored her unless they were alone in the common room at the break of dawn. It wasn't fair! She had done so much to help him, she had comforted him, walked with him talked with him, nurtured him, and he gave her no credit, he didn't even acknowledge it. When he was worried or scared, she comforted him, when he felt the weight of the world crushing him it was she who helped him carry its weight. Despite all she did, and all she tried to do, she would always be a good-for-nothing nobody. Ginny Weasley did not want to be an overlooked nobody.

Sighing to herself, she stuck her hand into her pocket. Her secret was still safe, and like a ghost, she glided quietly over to the portrait hole.

"You do know it's after curfew," Hermione asked her. And that was apparently one of the last things Ginny wanted to hear at the moment. Out of everything Hermione could say, she had to say the one thing that insinuated that Ginny was an oblivious child.

"Yes," she said through gritted teeth. Without another word she slipped out of the portrait hole and up to the Astronomy tower. She pulled the gleaming blade out of her pocket and held it to her scarred wrist. Unbeknownst to Ginny, she was not alone on the tower. From under an invisibility cloak, someone was watching her. The mysterious figure smiled knowingly and slipped from the tower to formulate a plan.

* * *

"Hermione?" Blaise called nervously to the bushy haired girl as she prepared to exit the Arithmancy classroom. They were the last two students there, giving Blaise the perfect opportunity to ask her. He vaguely suspected that I had something to do with this, but pushed the thought out of his mind as her captivating brown eyes met his indigo ones. 

"I…er…um… was… uh…" Blaise stuttered, entirely at a loss for words.

"Cat got your tongue? I pity that poor animal." Hermione taunted.

"I don't know how to say this,"

"Eloquent, composed Blaise is stuttering and at a loss for words. I must make a note of this!"

"Before you publicly humiliate me, would you accompany me to the dance? This way you won't be humiliated by going with me." He blurted out, fighting the blush that was threatening to creep up his neck. Hermione's jaw dropped.

"I mean as friends. Last time I went with a pitcher of pumpkin juice. They're not the greatest dancers if you know what I mean…" He said, his voice trailing off. Hermione still stood staring at him, and it was now her turn to be at a loss for words.

"Well, Miss Granger, you seem to have landed yourself in the same predicament as I had, so I guess we're even." Blaise teased in attempt to cover up the embarrassment, nervousness, and ice cold dread that was flooding his body.

"Now would be a good time to say something… Hermione?"

"What? Sorry. Sure, I'll go with you." She said, sounding very flustered.

"Great! So I'll meet you outside your common room at 7?"

"Sure, great, I, errr, have to go meet Ginny," Hermione lied and raced out of the classroom.

"Well, that was interesting, not exactly what I had in mind, but interesting nonetheless." Blaise said to himself.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity." An old man in one of the portraits on the wall wheezed.

"I thought it was hearing voices in your head," Blaise replied picking up his books.

"That's the second,"

"Right, well, good day," Blaise called as he exited the classroom.

* * *

Hermione looked at her reflection in the mirror above the mantel in the common room. She scarcely recognized the person that stared back at her. The only thing that seemed to belong to her, were her honey brown eyes that stared out from under her lightly made-up eyes. Her normally bushy brown hair had been magic-ed blond by Ginny, and hung in silky ringlets past her shoulders framing her delicate face that was often hidden by the bushy mess. Her black gown complimented her small figure. It was held up by two thin straps. The top was laced with pink vines sprouting pink roses that spread up from her left hip. The dress was slit at that point, letting pink satin show through. The long elbow length black gloves completed her ensemble. 

Taking a deep breath, she floated over to the portrait hole and stepped out. Blaise was pacing nervously past the portrait.

"You'll wear out the floor that way" She said softly to him. Blaise looked up, ready with a smart cheeky response, but one look at her rendered him speechless. He seemed to be having the same effect on Hermione. He was dressed in black dress robes that complimented his swarthy skin and black curls. His hair was normally pulled back into his sad excuse for a ponytail, but tonight it hung loose in all of its chin length curly glory framing his angular face wonderfully. Blaise was not what one would consider handsome, nor was he ugly. He was tall, but not overly so, muscled slightly, but not very much. His only really astounding feature was his eyes. The deep orbs of indigo captured Hermione's soft brown ones, even though he was five inches taller than her, standing at a grand five feet ten inches.

After several minutes of awkward staring, Blaise broke the silence. "You look stunning, Hermione," he said, offering her his arm, which she accepted, blushing profusely.

"As do you," she said quietly as he led her down to the ball. They made their way over to a table where I was sitting, accompanied by a pitcher of butterbeer.

"Blaise, Hermione, meet my date," I joked, gesturing at the pitcher.

Hermione grinned as she sat down beside me, followed by Blaise beside her. Over the top of her head he shot me a triumphant smile.

"Ask her to dance," I mouthed.

"No," he mouthed back.

"You better, before I tell her."

A horrified expression flashed across Blaise's face. He looked down at Hermione who was trying to make out our silent conversation.

"Would you like to dance" He asked, after a sharp kick from me.

"Alright," She agreed hesitantly.

I was sure to go insane by the end of tonight, they had to loosen up. Maybe a bit of firewhisky mixed into whatever they were drinking would do the trick, but where would I get my hands on a bottle of firewhisky? I pondered the question as I watched them gliding gracefully across the dance floor weaving in and out of the other couples. With a roll of my eyes I placed my date back on the refreshment table where it belonged and headed for the Slytherin common room where I would wait to press Blaise for details upon his return, if he was to return.

After two hours of thumb-twiddling and many half hearted attempts to study for my N.E.W.Ts, a surly sullen Blaise shuffled into the common room and slumped down onto the couch.

"What happened?" I asked, throwing aside my Herbology text.

"Everything was perfect, we were dancing, we went on a stroll through the garden, I had the time of my life and from the look in her eyes I knew she did too. Then I went and ruined it." He said in his sarcastic tone of voice.

"What did you do?"

"I walked her back to her common room and I couldn't help myself, I kissed her." He paused to build suspense, but I stole the moment to ask the first stupid question that popped into my head. "Was it nice?"

"Yeah, she even kissed me back. It was like a dream." A dreamy look crossed his face. I groaned inwardly.

"I still don't get how this was bad," I pointed out loudly, jolting him out of his daydream.

"I'm getting to that. Anyway, as if she had just realized what she was doing, she broke away, mumbled the password and ran inside the common room and left me there staring at a fat lady in a pink dress who was shaking her head sympathetically at me."

"I'll talk to her tomorrow, go get some rest, everything will work out, I promise." I reassured him.

"Yeah, whatever," he said, and slumped up the stairs to his dormitory. I had half a mind to run over to Gryffindor tower and break that girl for breaking my friend's heart. In fact, the only thing that kept me from doing just that, was, I didn't know the password. I also figured that she would need time to sort things out, but normally that would not be enough to stop me in my blind frenzy.

* * *

Back at Gryffindor tower, Hermione was staring out the window wondering if she was high up enough for a jump to kill her. She was mortified beyond belief, and she knew she had hurt Blaise. Why did he have to go and complicate things? For months she had accepted that she fancied Blaise. She also accepted that he would never want her back. Nor would any other boy for that matter, she was the bushy haired know-it-all who was turning from Gryffindor to Slytherin. Therefore, using her newfound ability to mask emotion, she blocked that feeling from her being, even when in the presence of Millicent and Blaise when she normally let her mask fall. But now she knew Blaise liked her, which threw her whole way of thinking into question. She was a very practical person, even in her Slytherin state of mind and complications were unsolicited. N.E.W.Ts were around the corner, Voldemort was out to get her, and distractions were not embraced in the least bit. Friends were necessities, and quite frankly, she needed Blaise and Millicent's friendship, as well as Harry's, Ginny's, and the other Slytherins she was bonding with, if she was going to survive this year. However, boyfriends and commitments like that were unwelcome distractions. 

With a loud sigh she dropped the charm on her hair and changed into plaid flannel pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt vowing to put the event behind her and pretend it never happened. Tomorrow was Christmas and she did not want to destroy the spirit by mourning over the loss of a boy she could not have despite the fact that he liked her. Maybe it had all been a dream. The thought was highly unlikely and not the slightest bit of comfort. Rolling over onto her side, Hermione drifted into a fitful sleep.

* * *

"Explain yourself," I demanded, throwing Hermione against a wall. 

"Explain what?" She asked, unable to prevent her fear from clouding her eyes and seeping into her voice.

"Why you broke his heart," I said, relaxing my grip on her.

"Well, uh…" She began.

"Not to me, to him, he's in the room of requirement, moping. I fear he may do something drastic and dangerous. Please, Hermione?" I begged.

"Alright, alright, just let go of me first." I released her and Hermione ran her fingers through her bushy hair and hurried off to meet Blaise.

The only time Hermione spent in the Room of Requirement was DA meetings, where the atmosphere was bright and cheery. The place where she found Blaise was its opposite. He sat alone in a dark room that reminded her of a funeral parlor after dark.

_We need some light in here_. Hermione thought to herself as she tried to read his expression. Hurt was the only emotion present in his eyes and it pained her to know that she was its cause. No sooner than that train of thought came to a halt, the room brightened considerably.

"I'm sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean-"

"Yes, you did mean it, and I'm the one who should be sorry. I left because I was confused."

"And are you still confused?" He asked, hope prevalent in his voice.

"No, I care deeply for you Blaise, and my feelings go farther than just being friends," Hermione paused, guilt spreading through her veins as she saw the smile that was spreading across his pale face.

"But," She added watching as the smile turned into one of worry.

"But?"

"But, I can't be anything more than your friend."

"Why?"

"I'm one of Voldemort's main targets at the moment and he would use you to get to me and I don't want to be responsible for your death."

"That's dung, Hermione; you know he can't get to you here. Even if he did, I would gladly give up my life for yours."

"We also have N.E.W.Ts and I can't afford any distractions right now."

"So that's it, I'm just a distraction now?"

"You know what I mean Blaise; I need you to be here for me as a friend. I wish we could be more, but now is not a good time, some day in the future if you still want me, I'll be ready for you."

"I will wait for you, no matter how long it takes." He agreed, enveloping her in a hug. Hermione felt her heart grow heavy and sink several feet. What had she just done? _

* * *

_

a/n: You got your fluffy romance chapter, even if it wasn't exactly what you were expecting. I'm terribly sorry it took so long, especially since its half the length of what I normally write, I've been rather ill.

_Chaste-aeon_- Your help is always appreciated, I'm sure it was much worse before. I was really unimpressed with how I wrote that chapter. I may replace it later. The content would be the same, but it would be worded differently.

_PP Ruffie_- Thanks for the desert ideas, that should hopefully last me until the end of the story. I'm glad you like it and I wish I had more reviews and I'm very appreciative of your review.

_Excuse me Mr. Mister_- Opps blushes I shall fix that immediately.

I'm sending brownies to all of you, since I also love chocolate and I happen just to have really made them. Nobody aside from me is eating them because I'm sick, but that's perfectly fine with me. Yours can be store bought if you desire them to be.


	8. Chapter 7

**_Title_**: Tangled up in Darkness

**_Author_**: Tzippi Meshugah

**_Summery_**: War changes people, in ways we never would have known. Old rivalries are put behind us as we forge new alliances. War is upon us now and Hogwarts is changing. Students that were light are going dark, arch enemies are joining together and becoming friends. Unimaginable sacrifices will be made and it all comes down to the final battle to determine who will be victorious and what the consequences of that victory will be. We are tangled up in darkness and we must escape before the light flickers out for good. Narrated by Millicent Bulstrode.

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* * *

**

Tangled up in Darkness

_Chapter 7

* * *

_

Spells danced through the air; a colorful ballet of fatal jets of light. Cries and screams reverberated off the walls of crumbling buildings by those who had been struck down. Hogsmeade, as they knew it, no longer existed. There was no escape from the pandemonium that filled the ashen streets. Death Eaters swarmed through the stores killing all in their path. The last defense on the city had been breached- leaving nothing to do but retreat and run for your life.

Most of the time it really is hard to tell where bravery leaves off and flat out stupidity takes over, but here it was quite a clear cut. The students surrounding the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord himself were fools. Blinded momentarily by bright colorful jets, the select group of students, the D.A, fought valiantly. When the ash and dust had once again settled and the spitfire ceased, it became clear that their stupidity had paid off. The Dark Lord was missing, students had been struck down, but the Death Eaters lying in a heap on the ground made it clear that it was definitely well worth their effort. As exhaustion claimed them, they felt an odd sense of fulfillment. If they were to die just then, Hermione suspected, they would die proud with smiles on their faces. A new shadow was cast over the group, but this one was not filled with icy dread. Beaming down at them was a short portly man who they knew to be Professor Damien Dklajdf, Defense Against the Dark Arts Master and teacher. He strode bravely over to the students, armed with a fleet of stretchers and teachers who had come down to the village at the first sound of curses.

"You have fought well my friends, but now the time to rest has come. There will be a time to mourn the casualties later." He said comfortingly. His comforting words pierced the hearts of many, deflating their pride. Despite their gallant struggle, lives had been claimed.

"Let us not think of the bad. Count your victories, not your losses. Anybody can lose one fight." He said, noticing the downcast expression that had claimed many faces. However, at the time, he had not recognized the fact that one lost battle can drastically change the life of many. That one sentence would be someone's downfall later. That one lost fight would cost that person's life. An unnecessary casualty had, he too, come to realize that one lost fight could mean losing everything. There are certain philosophies that only a pessimistic person can understand. The life to be claimed was the life of an optimist.

* * *

Madame Pomphrey had been reluctant to let her go, but seeing as Hermione was in a far better condition than many other students and that she needed the bed space, she eventually gave in. As Hermione made her way to Dumbledore's office, she felt her heart sink. This was not the same school she had left earlier that morning. Before, it had been a safe haven, where contagious smiles spread from face to face and all thoughts of the war lay forgotten in dusty corners of their minds. Now even the first years seemed to have aged five years from all the anxiety which was far more pervasive than the happiness had ever been.

"Sugar Quill" Hermione whispered to the Gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office.

"Hermione wait!" Blaise said, out of breath from running. "Millicent is coming too."

"Hey Gryffette" I said, coming up behind her, using Draco's nickname for her.

The three of us stepped onto the stairway that led us to Dumbledore's chambers to find ourselves face to face with Ginny Weasley.

"He's been kidnapped, Hermione!" the red-head cried.

"Kidnapped? Who?"

"Ron! Dumbledore saw them take him; apparently they're trying to lure Harry to Voldemort."

"Is this true, Professor?" I inquired, seeing Dumbledore heading for us.

"Miss. Bulstrode, what you will hear here is strictly confidential Order of the Phoenix information. Once you hear it there is no turning away from the Order. If you feel that you are not ready to accept this responsibility I ask that you please leave for the safety of the Order."

"I will not betray you" I promised.

"Professor Snape, our spy, has confirmed that Voldemort has Ron, we will be forming a rescue mission to set him free."

"When do we go?" Ginny asked, sinking into the nearest armchair.

"I cannot send you on such a dangerous mission; the trained aurors and Order members will be able to handle it themselves,"

"But this is my brother that's missing!" Ginny cried frantically.

"And he would rather you were alive to greet him upon his return. The subject is closed. Please return to your dorms, and don't tell Harry."

"Why not? He has a right to know, Ron is his best friend" I asked, puzzled.

"You do not know Harry well, in fact, I'm afraid none of us do anymore. He will blame it on himself, just as he did with Miss. Granger's assumed death this supper. However, I cannot let that happen. He is growing more resentful and sinking deeper into depression. News like this may push him over the edge." Dumbledore said sternly, opening the door to his office. Ginny pushed her way past us and fled down the stairs, Hermione made a move as if to chase after her, but I grabbed her arm.

"Let her go, she's a strong girl, she'll bounce back."

Hermione nodded, but did not look quite convinced. "Something is wrong with her- I don't know what, but what you just saw is not _the_ typical Ginny behavior. Even when her father was attacked, she was not nearly as this hysterical. I'm worried"

"Well, suck it up and look brave for the younger years, or look expressionless. They need strength and support more than she does. Life is about having your priorities in order. Right now, our top priority is to rest." Blaise said calmly. Hermione nodded again and the three headed back to their respective dormitories.

* * *

It was cold in the stone dungeons of Hogwarts, despite the fact that the day had been warm and beautiful. There was never warmth, no matter how hot the day was. The Slytherin atmosphere was cold with indifference. Draco shivered, he'd love to go back into his slightly warmer dorm and curl up, but there was no time tonight. He had been given a mission many months ago and it was time to carry it out.

Draco began the trek up from the dungeons. Normally he enjoyed walking around the castle at night. The thrill of narrowly escaping detention pleased him, and the heavy silence called to him. Draco loved quietness. It was his true calling in life. His arrogance was an act, just like Blaise's sullen silence. He'd walked through the halls drinking it all in, but not tonight, tonight was different, and he could feel it in the air. There was a foreboding feeling that he couldn't shake off. He shivered again, even though the hall was not cold. Suddenly he stopped. There were footsteps coming towards him, and they were neither Filch's, nor Snape's. He backed against the wall. Ginny Weasley was coming right toward him. _Perfect._ She held her head high with stubbornness, and she was muttering angrily under her breath.

"Bloody git! Why does the world see it fit to treat me like a nobody? He's my brother, and yet, I'm too young to help out."

At first Draco thought she was referring to him, but the rest of the outburst removed that thought from his mind. He smiled widely to himself. His plan would work better if she was in her current state of mind. She was a powerful witch, there was no denying that. And though she was only a year younger than himself, she was young enough at heart to be convinced on a normal night, regardless of her stubborn demeanor. Tonight she was vulnerable and power hungry and he came to offer her power. She would be a great tool, rising quickly up the ranks. Draco began to follow her. He stayed a few steps behind at all times, watching and waiting. He followed her up to the astronomy tower, at which point she flung herself onto the red seat and stared blankly into space. A star shot through the sky.

"It's been so long since I've wished on a star, but I need your help, please give me the chance to do something great, something that I'll be given credit for, something that won't be over looked and under appreciated." She cried tearfully. Her hand slipped into her pocket and he knew what was happening. She did the same thing every night, even though her milky white skin never showed it.

"I would think twice about doing that if I were you," Draco drawled stepping out of the shadows.

"And I would think twice before spying on an angry Gryffindor especially one with a weapon in her hand." Ginny shot back without missing a beat.

"The shooting star sent me," he taunted. It was probably wise not to infuriate the key to his master plan, but his mouth was way ahead of his brain when it came to insulting others.

"I command you to leave now and never repeat a word of what you saw to anybody before I'm forced to take action" She commanded, her blue-gray eyes narrowing to a glare.

"But I have an offer for you, one you can't refuse."

"_Can't refuse_ as in physically can't, or as in I wouldn't want to," She asked suspiciously.

"A bit of both, I suppose, but more on the latter one. But if you want me to leave, I can take your dream job offer and go." He said stepping towards the door hoping she would call him back. As he opened the door and began down the stairs he panicked, she was not calling after him. Draco cursed silently to himself. Now how was he going to rope her in? The light patter of footsteps behind him brought a smile back to his face, which he immediately swallowed up.

"What sort of job? And this better be good."

"It is all you could ever hope for and strictly confidential. Step into my office."

"Your office?"

"It's a figure of speech." He said, scowling as he headed back up to the Astronamy tower.

"I offer you the opportunity to be praised and appreciated. The opportunity to go on missions, no matter how dangerous, you would be important and high in the ranks."

"The ranks of what?"

"The ranks of the Death Eaters. You, with your connections and your clever sneakiness that only the greatest spies have, would be up at the top near the Dark Lord's right hand."

"Join the Death Eaters? Become in league with the monster who is out to get me and my friends and has kidnapped my brother? There is no way I would ever join him!"

"Tell me, Weaselette, are you going to be able to help get your brother out of the Dark Lord's clutches, or are you being left behind? When your brother gets back, if he makes it out alive, will that make you recognized as brave and great, or will you be greeted warmly before being pushed out of the way and off to the side like a useless dishrag which you are not?" Draco asked as he paced the floor. From the panicked look in her eye he knew he had struck a nerve.

"You mean to tell me that if I ally myself with You-Know-Who, I can have power, recognition, and my strength will be utilized?"

"All that and more." Draco promised. He had her on the line, now all he had to do was reel her in. "If you are to accept the great offer I give you which you will never see again, you won't have to receive the dark mark, to keep you as a camouflaged spy. I even have a mission for you already, if you are willing to accept."

"I accept, but if I find out you are lying, I will turn us both in to Dumbledore" She warned.

"Spy on Potter and his friends, tell me everything about him, his strengths, weaknesses, greatest fears- anything that may be considered useful- I want to know. Use any means to get close to him; seduce him if you have to. That manner might be best." Draco said, sitting down on the maroon leather bench across from her.

"Spy on Harry? There is no way I can betray them like that. I'm their friend!" Ginny cried, jumping to her feet.

"If overlooking you and babying you is what you want in friends, maybe you better go back and forget the powerful position I'm offering you. You have nothing to betray because you are nothing to them and you know it, Weaselette. Deep down inside your heart you know it, and I know it. That is what makes you roam the halls at night. That is what makes you cut. That is the reason for your insomnia and the bags under your eyes. To them you are worthless; to the Dark Lord you are a treasure." Draco said, his voice rising as he built up momentum in his speech. "So what do you say, are you in?" He asked, praying that he would get the answer he wanted.

"Yes, I'll do it. I'll be the lapdog for the Dark Lord if that is what he wishes me to do, so long as I get the recognition for my work and not you." She said.

"Deal," Draco agreed, shaking her outstretched hand. As Ginny left the tower, the metal razor clattered to the ground. She no longer had a need for it. The numbness in her blood had been replaced with adrenaline and she had not hurt herself in the process. No longer did she need to see her blood dripping down her wrist to feel power. Now she would see the blood of others pouring out because of her word and her wand.

* * *

'_Seduce him in you have to', _rang through her head. It was inconsolable, like a tantrum throwing toddler. After three days of no news from her brother, and nothing new from Harry who had shut himself off from the world, she began to see it as her only option. Earlier in the year, he had spewed information to her at night, when there was nobody else around. Now he had quieted himself, just when she needed the information she had casually ignored. Her mind made up, Ginny strode over to the seventh year girl's deserted dorm and flung open the wardrobe. Lavender and Parvati's clothes stared back at her. Smiling to herself she rummaged through them looking for the perfect outfit.

Three hours later she emerged from the prefect's bathroom where she had been hiding, biding her time by making herself look perfect. She clutched her Hogwarts robe around her small frame tightly as she hurried to the common room which she knew would be deserted, save for one person; Harry.

"Mackled malaclaw." She said quietly to the Fat Lady who gave her an inquiring glance as she slipped through the portrait hole.

"Hello, Harry." She said seductively, after seeing that he was indeed alone in the common room. Ginny gave him a sly wink and slipped off her robes to reveal the outfit she had put together. A silky green halter top clung to her frame, emphasizing the curve of her bust and dipping down low, revealing quite a bit of cleavage. It ended a couple inches short of her micro mini black skirt. Grinning seductively, she tossed her red hair, which was curled into large silky curls over her shoulder. Many times that night had she wondered why in the world Lavender had this outfit in her possession, but she did not much as dwell on it for she had already captured Harry's attention.

"Mind if I sit down?" She asked, in the same voice, still wearing her smile. Harry gave a small forced nod, seemingly stripped of the power of speech. Ginny slid over until she was sitting practically on top of him. The slightest bit of pity for the poor boy washed through her. Here he was deprived of all pleasure, suddenly having his friend's little sister dressed as a sex goddess and throwing herself at him. Oh how fun it was to be evil. He was obviously very uncomfortable with the situation; his breathing was forced and labored, and beads of sweat appeared at his temples.

"Harry," she said simply, stroking his face with her hand.

"Ginny," he croaked back huskily, shivering at her touch. Ginny shifted herself over so that she was sitting in his lap. He let out a low moan.

"You like this, don't you? Well, there's even more where this came from," she said, before pressing her lips onto his, kissing him hungrily. Truthfully, she was rather repulsed by the thought. Ever since she had gotten over her crush, she had treated him like a brotherly figure and snogging her brother did not especially please her, but Harry seemed to be enjoying it. His thin hands wound through her curled hair and hers found their way into his as she tried to pretend it was not actually Harry she was kissing. She felt his hands abandon her hair and start groping for her breasts. Mentally, she prayed that he would run out of air, which moments later, he did.

"Ginny," he said again, as he broke away from her to get air, his voice still husky and heavy with desire. She smiled and rested her head against his scrawny body, gagging inwardly.

Suddenly as if that one kiss had been the key to his soul, he began spewing his innermost secrets, fears, feelings, and thoughts- ones that he had kept from her during their normal conversations. Ginny sat silently leaning against it, drinking it all in as her evil smile grew larger and larger. He did not stop talking until dawn broke and the sun made its first appearance on the horizon.

"We'll talk more tonight, alright?" She asked, leaning over and kissing him lightly on the cheek.

"Yeah, tonight…," he echoed dreamily. Ginny nearly floated all the way upstairs, despite the feeling of repugnance still lingering in her stomach. This Death Eater game was much easier than it looked.

* * *

a/n: I got a bit bored of Hermione, Blaise and Millicent and I couldn't decide exactly what I want to do with them so I took a break and focused a bit more on other characters.

I'm sorry it took me so long, I entered a writing contest from my library for original stories and I've been working like crazy trying to get it done before I leave for Israel on July 21st. I also have to take into account that I need time to read HBP, so this is probably the last chapter you'll see before I get back in about a month. I took a break from that to finish this chapter, and now I really must be getting back to it.

Thanks to chaste-aeon for betaing this for me! And to my lone reviewer PP Ruffie, hopefully you've figured out who has been watching Ginny. I'm sending you both ice cream sundaes seeing as today was ice cream sundae-day at the camp where I work.


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